With one defeat for club or country in the past 18 months, Manchester City's Rodri has a strong claim to be the most influential player in the world right now. In that time the Spain holding midfielder, 28, has won the Champions League, two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, Uefa Super Cup, Club World Cup, Nations League and Euro 2024. Next up for Rodri is Sunday's game against City's title rivals Arsenal.
He missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury, having played 63 times for City and Spain last term, but returned against Brentford last weekend. This week he claimed players are over the football calendar, and added: "If it keeps this way, it will be a moment that we have no other option." Since Rodri's debut for City in 2019 they have lost 24% of matches without him in the team compared to 11% with him.
With the Ballon d'Or winner to be named next month, BBC Sport looks at just how important Rodri is. Rodri had big boots to fill when he joined Manchester City with Fernandinho considered by some the best defensive midfielder to ever play in the Premier League. However, Rodri has made the position his own and now has to be ranked along with the greats like Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele, but with more passing in the opposition half and less tackling and more Champions League final winning goals.
But it did not start off so smoothly, according to the Spaniard anyway - who said his first season at the club was a "disaster". "The holding midfielder is.