Rodrygo Brazilian Footballer With 24M Instagram Followers

Early life

Rodrygo Silva de Goes was born on 9 January 2001 in Osasco, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. His father, Eric, played as a right-back in several divisions of Brazilian football, reaching Série B at the highest. In 2011, at the age of ten, Rodrygo joined the youth system of Santos, where he was first placed in the futsal side. There he worked under the futsal coach Barata, who had also trained Neymar.

Career

Santos. In March 2017, with first-team regulars away in Peru for a Copa Libertadores fixture, manager Dorival Júnior called the teenager up to make up the numbers in training. He signed his first professional contract on 21 July 2017, a five-year deal, and was promoted to the main squad on 1 November. His Série A debut came on 4 November 2017 as a late substitute in a 3-1 win over Atlético Mineiro, and he scored his first senior goal in January 2018, a late winner against Ponte Preta.

On 1 March 2018 he made his Copa Libertadores debut, aged 17 years and 50 days, which made him the youngest Santos player to appear in the competition. Fifteen days later he scored against Nacional, and at 17 years, two months and six days he was the youngest Brazilian to score in the tournament at that time. In June 2018 he scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 league win over Vitória. He made 80 appearances and scored 17 goals for Santos.

Real Madrid. Real Madrid agreed a deal with Santos on 15 June 2018, and Rodrygo joined in June 2019 for a reported fee of €45 million. He made his first appearance on 25 September 2019, and scored against Osasuna within a minute of coming on. On 6 November 2019, aged 18 years and 301 days, he scored a hat-trick against Galatasaray in the Champions League. He was the second-youngest to score a Champions League hat-trick and the first player born in the 21st century to score in the competition. Real Madrid took the 2019-20 La Liga title in his first season, in which he made 19 league appearances and scored twice. On 3 November 2020 his goal gave Madrid a 3-2 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League.

His breakthrough moments came in 2022. In the quarter-final against Chelsea on 12 April he came off the bench to score a volley that took the tie into extra time, and on 4 May, in the semi-final second leg against Manchester City, he scored twice between the 90th and 91st minutes to level the match before Karim Benzema's penalty put Madrid through on the way to winning the competition against Liverpool. On 30 April he scored twice in a 4-0 win over Espanyol that secured the club's 35th league title.

In 2023 he scored twice in Madrid's 2-0 win away to Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final second leg, and on 6 May he scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Osasuna in the Copa del Rey final. On 2 November 2023 Real Madrid announced a new contract running until 30 June 2028. He missed the rest of the 2025-26 season after a match against Getafe on 2 March 2026.

Brazil. Rodrygo was called up to the Brazil under-17 side in March 2017 for the Montaigu Tournament, scoring on his debut against Denmark and in two further matches. He received his first senior call-up in November 2019 for the match against Argentina in Riyadh, entering for the last twenty minutes of a 1-0 loss. He was selected for the 2022 World Cup squad, and in the quarter-final against Croatia, which Brazil lost on penalties, he took the first kick and it was saved. He was also in the squad for the 2024 Copa América.

Recognition

With Real Madrid he has won La Liga in 2019-20, 2021-22 and 2023-24, the Copa del Rey in 2022-23, the Champions League in 2021-22 and 2023-24, the UEFA Super Cup in 2022 and 2024, the FIFA Club World Cup in 2022 and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in 2024. He also won the Supercopa de España in 2020, 2022 and 2024. Individual honours include Best Newcomer at the 2018 Campeonato Paulista and the Goal.com NxGN award in 2020.

Personal life

Rodrygo is a Christian. In February 2024 he joined the Juegaterapia Foundation and the artist Titocustoms in a charity auction of personalised items. He has a younger sister, Ana Julya, born in 2018.