Last year’s Ballon d’Or winner was being bundled through the backstage area of the Theatre du Chatelet clutching his weighty 18-carat gold statue and steadying his crutches. Always adept at juggling two or three things, Rodri.
He was in that dimly-lit corridor in the 19th century four-tiered playhouse on the bank of the Seine, talking briefly to Daily Mail Sport last October. Overcome with emotion, he was discussing a career-defining phone call with his father while he was floundering as a teenager at Villarreal, about how his dad had told him to keep the faith.
He was coming to terms with the realisation that he had become the first defensive midfielder to be voted the world’s best footballer.