Surprise Man City star named UCL Player of Tournament despite Haaland's 12 goals

With just over a week to go until the Champions League draw and the start of a new season in Europe, cast your mind back to last season's final.

A 1-0 win in Istanbul was all Manchester City needed to clinch the trophy and tick the remaining box in their quest for a historic Treble, before the mother-of-all party weekends.

At the centre Man City's triumphant season in Europe - and the celebrations - was the club's summer signing, and debutant in blue, Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian shattered Champions League records at ferocious pace as City completed their unbeaten run through the tournament, becoming only the third player in the competition's history to score five times in a single match.

Haaland also became the yonguest player to reach 35 goals in the competition, as well as the quickest, taking just 27 games to achieve the feat with Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund, and the Cityzens.

But despite a blistering run through the competition, UEFA's Technical Observers chose to name one of Haaland's team-mates as player of the tournament.

The honour was instead granted to the 23-year-old's stalwart defensive midfielder, Rodri, who scored the only goal in the final to write Man City into the history books.

The 27-year-old has been a bedrock of Guardiola's side since joining the team four years ago, and somewhat of a low-key superstar for his unshowy performances anchoring the side's midfield.

The Spain international was called upon 56 times by his manager last season, and missed only five matches en route to the Treble, featuring more times than anyone else in the squad - although Haaland came closest.

UEFA celebrated their choice - who had the most touches of a football in the entire competition - for his 'formidable tactical understanding', with the organisation citing his 'exceptional awareness of opposition pressure when receiving the ball' as one of his many skills.

Ahead of the start of Man City's 2023/24 campaign, Rodri joked that he had watched his winning goal back '5,000 times'.

'In all the different languages,' he added. 'Spanish, English, German, Italian.

‘I think it’s special, it’s part of football to enjoy these kind of moments - especially as a holding midfielder, you don’t feel like you are going to be decisive.'

But the midfielder had harder-to-swallow comments when critiquing the fixture list for the upcoming season, warning of the possibility of player burn out due to the large number of domestic and international ties.

‘I don’t remember exactly the number of games I played, but I had a talk with the club and the coach because it’s not healthy,’ Rodri said.

‘You can do it for one season, but when it’s two or three in a row, it can be worse for the team because your physicality can drop. So I have to watch out. We have already spoken that, it cannot always be like this.

‘The important thing for me is that they know the situation and they know that for the next few seasons we will have to watch out,’ he added.

‘Now I am young, but maybe when I get to 30 or 31 I cannot do this kind of thing, so I have to watch the body because 60 games is not the best thing for a player. Also, the seasons get even longer every year. We have to adapt to this.’

The draw for the upcoming Champions League group stage ties will take place on August 31.

As the winners, and the English champions, Man City will be drawn from Pot One.