Real Madrid’s reluctant game-changer Rodrygo could return to haunt City

W hen Rodrygo Goes scored the winning goal in the Copa del Rey final against Osasuna on Saturday night, he headed to one corner, embraced his teammates and then made an i with his fingers. Few spotted it and fewer understood the meaning, at least not yet, but somewhere in that sea of white where everyone was going wild was a small boy sitting alongside his dad who knew. Down there on the pitch, it was his celebration the Brazilian was doing.

Ignacio is eight and has just completed a cycle of chemotherapy as he recovers from Hodgkin’s disease. Rodrygo had first spoken to him in February through a charity called Juegaterapia dedicated to children with cancer, and had been to see him two days before the final, challenging him to a game of Fifa on the console. Ignacio had warned Rodrygo he was going to get beaten and when he scored, the i followed. Now it was Rodrygo’s turn.

“This is for Ignacio,” Rodrygo revealed afterwards. By then, the winger had a winner’s medal round his neck and the man of the match award in his hands. He had scored twice to take Madrid to a 2-1 victory, securing the only trophy he hadn’t won there, collection complete at 22. The winner came with 20 minutes to go, the opener after only 106 seconds. He’s always been fast: Rodrygo signed for Madrid for €45m at 17, although he didn’t go until he was 18, got his first goal 94 seconds into his La Liga bow, faster than any debutant in the club’s history, and scored four minutes into his first European night at the Santiago Bernabéu.

His cup debut brought him a goal after 14 minutes and he scored on his Club World Cup debut too. That though was on 92 minutes and if the early goals have been good, it’s the late ones he holds most fondly and for which he is