BUILT IN BOLTON
The striker England must stop tomorrow was born in Brazil and came to notice in Spain, but in fact Rodrigo was...
RODRIGO MORENO, the Valencia forward who will lead Spain’s attack against England .England tomorrow, will never forget the summer of 2010. He scored for Spain in the Under-19 European Championship final, was sold by Real Madrid to Benfica for 86million, and then he was sent to Bolton.
As if the loan switch wasn’t enough of a culture shock for the Rio-born son of Flamengo left-back Adalberto Machado, he made his debut in a League Cup derby against Burnley at Turf Moor.
‘I remember that Owen Coyle had been Burnley coach before and the people in the stands really got stuck into him,’ said Rodrigo at the end of Spain training as they prepared for tomorrow’s game in Seville against
Coyle had left Burnley the previous January and they were subsequently relegated. He made his way to the dug-out flanked by eight security guards and, just as Rodrigo remembers, the ‘Judas’ chants continued all match.
It was the start of a tough nine months for the 19-year-old, but as he looks back aged 27 he believes it was the making of him — born in Brazil, built to last in Bolton.
Benfica had farmed him out because they didn’t think he would get much game-time in his first senior season. But breaking into Coyle’s impressive Bolton team would be just as difficult.
‘Daniel Sturridge arrived in January and started to play straight away,’ said Rodrigo. ‘And the captain Kevin Davies was there, with Johan Elmander, who scored plenty of goals that season.
‘I tended to play on the left or the right, but they also had Martin Petrov, who was very good, and Stuart Holden. We had a very good team and when the opportunities came I tried to take them.’
He was limited to 17 starts and scored once but Coyle saw enough to try to sign him permanently and Rodrigo says his Bolton education was invaluable.
‘We had Paul Robinson, Gary Cahill and Zat Knight,’ he said, reeling off some of the era’s most uncompromising defenders who trained as hard as they played. That was important for me because when you come out of youth football into senior football and you are in the Premier League you know a lot is going to be asked of you physically.’
He bulked up to handle himself, something that would help his transition from winger to striker.
He spoke some English when he arrived and was helped by his father who lived with him and by team-mate Marcos Alonso, another who has made it from Bolton to the Spain team.
‘That really helped me settle in because we had played before together in Real Madrid’s youth team ‘Castilla’. When I didn’t understand I would speak with him. We would help each other.
‘The way that people live in Spain compared with England is totally different but we were there to play football and the club looked after us. There was a good atmosphere in the dressing-room and the manager was a good person who would always try to help younger players.’
Rodrigo says tough challenges were not the only thing that left a mark. ‘In England there is a lot of respect for the history of a club or of the country. I remember the commemoration for those who died in the Second World War.
‘The minute’s silence had a lasting impact on me because it really was a minute of complete silence. In Spain there is always some idiot shouting or insulting.’
Off the pitch he and his father would head to Manchester to eat at a Brazilian restaurant whenever they could. He never quite got the taste for English food or a pint.
‘I don’t much like alcohol,’ he said. ‘And pints are no good for me because I like cold beer and it’s impossible to drink these pints cold — either you drink it quickly or it gets warm.’
After going back to Benfica and winning the league in Portugal, Rodrigo signed for Valencia for
8 30m. At Mestalla Stadium he would cross paths with another quintessential representation of English football — Gary Neville.
That four-month coaching stint on Spain’s east coast seem to have been enough to convince Neville he is not cut out to be a manager. Does Rodrigo agree? ‘Valencia is a demanding club anyway and he arrived at a time when the season had started badly with the manager being sacked,’ he recalled. ‘We were having a bad time. He tried to implement his ideas and turn things around.
‘Perhaps if he had taken over at the start of the season he would have had time to prepare the team as he wanted it and had better results. And on top of everything he didn’t have the language.
‘For all that you can have a translator it is never going to be the same. You lose the effect your words can have.’
Neville will have seen first hand how Valencia are in a better place now after they faced Manchester United in the Champions League last week.
‘We were not decisive in the final third,’ said Rodrigo. ‘If we had taken better decisions we could have won what was an even contest despite the fact that on paper United are one of the best teams in Europe. They are not going through a great time and that is football today — if you are not able to bring together your best players behind a shared idea it’s more difficult to succeed.
‘Juventus right now are at a better level to the rest of the group. We now have crucial games with back-to-back fixtures against Young Boys and that will mark our path forward.’
Rodrigo’s path goes onwards and upwards. In the summer Real Madrid thought about buying him back, ultimately baulking at Valencia’s 8120m asking price.
He doesn’t rule out a return to England. ‘I like the Premier League a lot,’ he said. ‘And I’m someone who likes to stay home so English life is no big problem. Who knows?
‘It helped make me the player I am. It was my first year as a senior pro and it helped me learn how to overcome obstacles.’
Tomorrow he is expected to start. ‘England are a strong team,’ he said. ‘They showed that at the World Cup and at Wembley last month. We were playing well but in the last 10 or 15 minutes we suffered and we won because De Gea made a very good save from Marcus Rashford.’ The mention of Rashford is apt. England’s starlet has just turned 20 and for some of his impatient followers it’s a problem that he doesn’t always start for England and United. When Rodrigo was Rashford’s age he was more often than not sitting on the bench at Bolton. It seems to have done his career no harm at all.