Rodrigo fondly remembers time at Bolton in the Premier League

After coming through the youth system at 'Los Blancos', Rodrigo made the decision to join Benfica in 2010, but with first team opportunities in Lisbon limited he was sent out on loan. 

Bolton might have seemed a strange choice, but the 27-year-old explained: “Before Benfica appeared, Bolton were interested in signing me. I chose Benfica because they were in the Champions League but I knew I’d have few chances in the first year. I was due to go on loan to a Portuguese side but Bolton was a really interesting option. The Premier League is much stronger.”

Unafraid of taking the harder option, he enjoyed his time in the Uk, “England was good to me,” he insisted. ''You go to England, you know the physical demands – you’ve got no choice but to adapt and that makes you grow. Working there daily helped. I enjoyed it.”

“I liked it a lot,” he smiled. “Bolton’s a small place and people live totally differently to Spain, but we were there to play football and the club looked after us.”

August 20, 2018

However opportunities were hard to come by in Lancashire, with Rodrigo only making four Premier League starts, scoring once, but he is not bitter, saying the experience was good, regardless. 

“A player’s first year is difficult [for a manager]. There’s doubt, the need to respect the stages of development. You might want to put him in but three bad games weigh heavily. Bolton had a good season and when a team wins it’s not easy to make changes. Daniel Sturridge arrived in January, Kevin Davies was captain and [Johan] Elmander got goals. Besides, I participated. I always got on, whether that was five, 10, 20 minutes.

“I was involved, it was my first senior season and I learned a lot. You have to adapt to the speed, the intensity. It’s always a step up from youth football and the Premier League is a step up again. It’s the most physical league, very dynamic, direct, back and forth.

“The way people live football is different, too. That’s what makes the Premier League so special, in that sense it’s better than the rest. It’s cultural, there’s respect for history. I remember the commemoration for those that died in the second world war: the minute’s silence hit me because it really was a minute’s silence. In Spain there’s always some idiot shouting, someone whistling, some insult. The football culture in England is totally different to anything in Spain, France, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina.”

The former Bolton man got on the score sheet the last time the two teams met, in a 2-1 win for Spain at the national stadium, he will be looking to do the same in Seville. 

“It’s a special game – reward for everything,” Rodrigo says. “England showed they’re strong at the World Cup and at Wembley. We played well but still struggled in the last 15 minutes and won because David de Gea made a great safe from Marcus Rashford. This is the kind of game that would motivate anyone, not just me.”

Rodrigo has come a long way from being on the fringes at the University of Bolton Stadium, with his 19 league goals scored in 2017/18 he helped fired Valencia to a Champions League spot, while his former employers finished 21st in the Championship.