Rodrygo Goes: Future Brazilian Superstar?
Rodrygo Goes is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Real Madrid. His career started with Brazilian club Santos FC where he made 63 appearances scored 13 goals. He joined Real Madrid from Santos in July 2019 though the agreement between the clubs was reached one year ago in July 2018. The transfer fee was €45 million.
Rodrygo’s first team debut for Real Madrid came against Osasuna on 25 Sep 2019. He also scored in the match. In the process, Rodrygo became the first player born in the 21st century to score a goal for Real Madrid. Two months later in November 2019, Rodrygo started in a UEFA Champions League group stage match against Turkish club Galatasaray. He scored a perfect hat-trick (left foot, right foot and header) in a 6-0 win for Los Blancos. By doing so, he became the second youngest ever player to score a hat-trick in the UCL and the first player born in the 21st century to score in the competition. He went on to make 26 appearances across all competitions in the 2019-20 season.
According to Football Manager 2020, Rodrygo can play across the front line. He tends to cut inside from both wings, moves into channels and runs with the ball down left. His strengths are his agility, his dribbling ability, his ability to accelerate and his first touch. He is best suited for the Inverted Winger on Support duty and for the Inside Forward on Attack duty. Rodrygo possesses great composure inside the penalty box. Predominantly, Rodrygo is tasked to provide width on the right flank when his team have possession thereby stretching the opponents’ defence. He is also in a position to receive diagonal passes when Los Blancos need to switch the play. The Brazilian can also tuck inside and allow the full-back to make forward runs and give width, mostly when Real have held the opponents back. In spite of playing as an attacker, Rodrygo is not the type of player who passively stays up front for most of the time. Instead, he likes to drop deep and participate in Madrid’s build-up plays. He can also move to the middle and drop beside the midfielders inside the half-space. He can even switch to the opposite flank and flood the area by combining with Eden Hazard, Toni Kroos and/or Marcelo/Ferland Mendy. The teenager can also arrive into the box and make himself available at the far-post in crossing situations. He occasionally switches positions with the centre-forward to confuse opposition defenders. When Real don’t have possession, Rodrygo still acts as a right-winger but will press various players depending on the opponents’ playing shape. He has a solid defensive work rate mostly during transitions.
Rodrygo is a very explosive attacker to watch who has a great composure and supreme eye for goals. Besides this, he is also a good team player. If he remains injury free, sky is the limit for the teenager.
