Rodri
Spain holding midfielder who won the Golden Ball as the 2026 World Cup's best player.
Rodri won the Golden Ball as the 2026 World Cup's best player after Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in the 19 July final, part of a sweep of Spain's individual honours by defensive players rather than attackers.
Last refreshed: 21 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Spain's Golden Ball went to a holding midfielder, not a forward; what does that say about how they won?
Timeline for Rodri
Attended as captain fresh from winning the tournament's Golden Ball
2026 FIFA World Cup: Felipe VI received Spain's champions at the ZarzuelaReceived an initial strike from Nahuel Molina
2026 FIFA World Cup: FIFA opens prosecutor file on brawlWon the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player
2026 FIFA World Cup: One goal conceded in eight matchesBackground
Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, Born 22 June 1996, plays as a defensive midfielder for Manchester City, whom he joined from Atlético Madrid in 2019. He scored the winning goal in City's 2023 Champions League final and won the Ballon d'Or in 2024, the first City player to do so.
A serious knee injury kept him out for most of the 2024-25 season before he returned that May, making his subsequent World Cup-winning campaign and Golden Ball award a marked recovery rather than a continuation of an uninterrupted run of form.
His award sits alongside Spain's tournament record of conceding once in eight matches, the fewest by any champion, and a set of individual honours, Golden Ball, Golden Glove and Young Player, that went to a holding midfielder, a goalkeeper and a defender rather than an attacker.