Rodrigo Mora with the under-21s isn’t a demotion, it’s quite the opposite | OneFootball

Rodrigo Mora with the under-21s isn’t a demotion, it’s quite the opposite | OneFootball

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·29 August 2025

Rodrigo Mora with the under-21s isn’t a demotion, it’s quite the opposite

Article image:Rodrigo Mora with the under-21s isn’t a demotion, it’s quite the opposite

After the announcement of the National Team's call-up list, one of the standout names was Rodrigo Mora, who was part of the group that won the Nations League in June, and who, two and a half months later, now appears in the under-21 team's call-up.

Roberto Martínez believes that time is part of the natural trajectory of an 18-year-old player like Mora and recommends, above all, that the athlete get playing time, a possibility that the under-21s can offer him.


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"He was just on the team that won the Nations League and coach Luís Freire will talk about that. We think it's a good stage for Rodrigo Mora to be important and have an important role in the under-21s. It's not a demotion, it's the opposite. It's an opportunity to continue his training process," the Spaniard assured.

"Rodrigo Mora is in a normal phase, it happens in football, there are difficult times and good times. The important thing is to continue with the same attitude and try to improve every day. Mora's talent is exceptional, I love his talent and it's permanent," he praised, considering irrelevant the place where the young prodigy expresses his talent, as long as it's in a competitive context.

Roberto Martínez chose João Félix as an example of this. "Look at João Félix – 25 years old, but he has many years of experience and now he's happy, he's playing, that's what's important. I've said it before: it's not the market, or a league, it's not that. It's a locker room, a project, it's what the player needs to do, we've had many examples: the situation of Rúben Neves, even that of Cristiano Ronaldo… it's not the league or the country," he explains.

"I've said it many times, there's no right or wrong step. The important thing is to play, to be important in the locker room and to have challenges where the player can evolve and also grow. It's the player's role within the locker room that's important and difficult. It's better to evaluate afterwards, at the end of a season," the national coach concluded on this topic.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.

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