The dream of every Real Madrid fan has been to welcome Neymar to Santiago Bernabéu. They have always wished for this for years even before and after the Brazilian’s sojourn at their fiercest rival Barcelona.
However, the arrival and display of Neymar’s compatriot in Rodrygo has seen the majority of madridistas comparing the 18-year-old Brazilian, who netted three goals against Galatasaray, to Neymar.
The Rodrygo of Real Madrid
However, the teenager has rather maintained that he can only be the Rodrygo of Real Madrid as he is determined to make name for himself at Santiago Bernabéu while insisting that there can only be one Neymar.
The most fascinating thing is that it took only four minutes for the 18-year old Rodrygo to become the youngest Brazilian to ever score in the Champions League.
Amazingly, the most incredible thing is that it took the wonder kid only seven minutes to become the youngest player in Champions League history to score twice in the same game.
And by the end of the 90 minutes, he had become the second-youngest to ever hit a hat-trick in the tournament.
Benzema cannot hide his joy of having Rodrygo as a team-mate
Truly staggering statistics yet perhaps we should be surprised that it has taken him this long to take the game’s premier club tournament by storm.
This, after all, is not a kid renowned for hanging about.
He made his professional debut for Santos in November 2017 at just 16. The following year, he wrapped up his transfer to Real Madrid inside 20 minutes.
The agreed 12-month wait before actually moving to Spain clearly made Rodrygo even more impatient. And the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the start of the season must have only intensified his determination to make a positive first impression on the Madrid faithful.
He achieved that goal with a fine solo strike – just 93 seconds into his Liga debut (Only Brazil legend Ronaldo had ever done it quicker).
There was no goal on his Champions League bow. Rodrygo did, however, thoroughly vindicate Zinedine Zidane’s bold decision to start him up front against Galatasaray in Istanbul two weeks ago with a staggeringly confident performance in such a hostile environment.
He enjoyed the return fixture even more, though.Rodrygo’s inclusion had even come as a surprise to the player himself but he took it all in his stride and enthused afterwards, “Boy, I enjoyed that!”
There were just four minutes gone in Wednesday’s clash at the Bernabeu when Marcelo whipped over a deep and deliberate cross the back post.
Rodrygo controlled instantaneously, nimbly stepped inside on to his left foot – sending a bamboozled Mario Lemina tumbling to the turf in the process – before stunning the ball into the bottom corner of the Galatasaray goal.
The celebration was as jarringly controlled as the finish. Once again, he made it look like he has already been doing this kind of thing for years – because he has been doing this kind of thing for years.
The venue doesn’t seem to make any difference; nothing seems to faze him.
When previously asked what he would offer Madrid, he simply stated, “I’m a fast striker: I score and I dribble.”
He can also use his head, though, as he illustrated just three minutes after opening his Champions League account.
Remarkably, he could have netted the fastest ever hat-trick in the Champions League when Madrid were awarded a penalty in the 14th minute for a trip on Toni Kroos on the edge of the Galatasaray area. Except that Sergio stole that shine from him when he converted from the spot to give Madrid a three goals lead.
Rodrygo was not to be denied the match ball, though, completing his perfect hat-trick in the dying seconds of a resounding 6-0 win by poking home a return pass from Karim Benzema, whom the youngster had set up for Madrid’s fourth just before the break.
Given his Santos background, sleight frame and prodigious attacking talent, Rodrygo has obviously been compared to Neymar on several occasions, but the teenager insisted that he can only be the Rodrygo of Real Madrid.
