In a Players’ Tribune piece he penned in 2024, Rodri looked back on a summer camp experience in Connecticut during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Rodri has served as an excellent captain for Spain in the last few years, even leading them to glory at the 2024 Euros with a stellar run.
And now that he is on the verge of leading Spain to a second FIFA World Cup win, it is interesting to look back on his comments about his experience during the 2010 triumph.
Rodri reveals how American summer camp patrons reacted to his FIFA World Cup excitement
In a written piece for The Players’ Tribune in 2024, Rodri recounted his experience going to a summer camp in Connecticut in 2010, right in the middle of the FIFA World Cup.
Away from home and in a country with no tangible football culture, Rodri had a difficult experience trying to watch the tournament, but one that was vindicated by Spain reaching the World Cup final.
“I actually arrived there during the start of the 2010 World Cup. I couldn’t even check the internet, so I was in pain. But there was a little computer in the office of the main cabin, and every single day, I would ask the camp counselors to tell me who won the games.
“Spain lost the first match to Switzerland, if you remember. I thought they were messing with me. ‘Switzerland? Really? You sure you googled it right?’ Anyway, time is going by, and Spain start playing better. Knockouts — they keep winning.
“Then the semifinal against Germany — I’m dying. I’m on a canoeing trip, I think. I keep asking the main counselor, ‘Please, please, can you just find out the score?’ Finally, we get back to the cabins, and somebody tells me: ‘Spain are in the final.’
Rodri managed to confuse American campmates with FIFA World Cup win reaction
Writing further in the piece, Rodri revealed the lengths he went to watch the final between Spain and the Netherlands, and how he scared everyone with his celebration once Andres Iniesta scored the winner.
“I never felt so far from home, but also close to home, if you understand what I mean. For the final, I begged the main counselor to let me watch on his computer. He said OK, sure. Then he brings out this computer, and it’s like a 10-inch screen. You remember those mini laptop PCs? It was one of those. Tiny.
“I’m thinking: It’s beautiful. I don’t care. Just let me watch. I don’t know how we did it, because we were in the middle of the woods, but I must have found a stream that was not exactly legal, and I watched the final, surrounded by Americans who didn’t care about what was happening.
“When Iniesta scored, I literally started screaming, and I ran outside and sprinted around the lake… The Americans thought I was crazy. They were shaking their heads.
“They were looking at me like, ‘Wait, is the Spanish guy crying? Over the sawker?’ They couldn’t understand what it meant to me. They thought I was crazy. And maybe I am crazy.”
Now, 15 years later, Rodri finds himself back in the United States, set to play just 100 miles outside of Connecticut in a FIFA World Cup final, while captaining Spain.
For the 2024 Ballon D’Or, it is an opportunity for his journey at the World Cup to come full circle, and to complete his list of accolades with the biggest prize in football.
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