Real Madrid star Rodrygo has revealed Real Madrid’s biggest rivals are not Barcelona and Atletico Madrid as many believe.
According to the Brazilian, Real Madrid have no rival and Real Madrid’s biggest rival is Real Madrid.
Rodrygo said: “If the biggest rivalry is with Barcelona or Atlético? It’s Barcelona, but I think Real Madrid has no rival, they say ‘Our biggest rival is Real Madrid’ and we don’t even care about them.”
Rodrygo is definitely right. Real Madrid have won 35 La Liga titles compared to Barcelona’s 26 La Liga titles. Real Madrid have also won 14 Champions League trophies compared to Barcelona’s five Champions League trophies.
Real Madrid’s biggest rival is indeed Real Madrid and not Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.
Rodrygo has admitted that Mohamed Salah’s confidence heading into the Champions League final gave Real Madrid more motivation to win.
In the build-up to the game, Salah spoke openly about having a score to settle against Real after Liverpool lost to Los Blancos in 2018, but Jurgen Klopp’s men did not get revenge as they fell to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of a strike from Vinicius Junior.
“When a guy provokes you, sometimes you just want to win so you can make fun of them,” Rodrygo said. “In training, we used to say ‘come on Salah, come on Salah’.
“In our head, it was already ‘we need to win to make fun of Salah’.”
He continued: “After the final ended, we passed the Liverpool players in the corridor. Salah was a bit sad and [Luka] Modric said ‘try again next time’.”
Rodrygo also revealed that Neymar wants him to inherit the Brazil No. 10 jersey.
Rodrygo, 21, has earned five caps for Brazil and is expected to make Tite’s squad for the 2022 World Cup.
Like Neymar, Rodrygo began his career at Brazilian club Santos.
“Neymar said to me ‘I’m already leaving the national team and the 10 is yours,'” Rodrygo said.
“I didn’t even know what to say to him. I was embarrassed, I giggled and didn’t even know what to say properly. I told him that he must play some more, that I didn’t want [him] to [do so] now. And then he laughed.”
The iconic shirt has been graced down the years by Pele, Zico, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Neymar.
