A Summer in Connecticut

Thirty teenage campers huddled around a hastily-rigged television screen watching Spain lift the World Cup. One of them could not contain his delight — and 16 years later, he would collect and raise that same trophy, as Spain's captain.

In the summer of 2010, a 14-year-old boy from Madrid — then an Atletico Madrid academy prospect — ventured to the Incarnation Camp in Deep River, Connecticut. His full name was Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante, though the world would come to know him simply as Rodri. He is now expected to join Barcelona from Manchester City after winning the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2026 World Cup.

At the time, watching football at the camp was virtually unheard of. The Incarnation Camp was intentionally detached from the outside world, nestled in a rural corner of New England, a two-hour drive north of New York City. But nothing was going to stop Rodri from watching his country contest their first World Cup final against the Netherlands in Johannesburg.

"He needed to watch it like he needed to breathe," his former tent-mate Myles Smith recalled. "The camp leaders knew he would go insane if he could not; it would have been cruel, like a kid being deprived of something they crave."

Improvising a World Cup Watch Party

Given the camp's deliberately off-grid setup, watching the final was no easy task. But camp programme leader Chris Garrecht-Williams improvised. He bought a television from the local Walmart store with the intention of returning it the following morning. He arranged a temporary cable subscription and ran wiring from the only building on site with an electricity supply to the recreation hall, where the campers squeezed in to watch.

Mattresses and beach chairs were dragged inside. Popcorn was passed around. The lights were dimmed, and many of the children were more focused on their giddy Spanish campmate than the match itself.

The 2010 final was notoriously ill-tempered, with English referee Howard Webb showing 14 yellow cards — a World Cup final record that still stands. Johnny Heitinga was sent off after receiving the Netherlands' ninth booking and his second. Nigel de Jong somehow stayed on after a challenge where he caught Xabi Alonso in the chest, studs-first. It was a tense, fiery and goalless watch until four minutes of extra time remained, when Andres Iniesta scored the winner for Spain.

Unsurprisingly, Rodri exploded.

"He was banging the table with such excitement that the television screen was wobbling," Jimmy Christensen, the camp's trip director, remembered. "Chris was shouting, 'No, no, no! We have to return that tomorrow!'"

Football Was His Religion

Every day, Rodri demanded tournament updates, and for every Spain game he wanted details. Despite his remote setting, the World Cup would not pass him by. When the competition reached the quarter-finals, he had to go on a five-day canoeing trip where accessing match results was not possible. He waited two days to find out Spain had beaten Paraguay 1-0.

"It must have been killing him," Christensen said.

For the semi-final against Germany, simply hearing the result post-match would not cut it. "Normally, we try to keep the kids away from the outside world," Christensen explained, "but we let him watch the semi-final with Chris on his laptop."

That setup no longer felt like enough for the final, and Garrecht-Williams' arranged watchalong remains a camp highlight for those present.

Rodri was one of around 20 campers from Spain who arrived at the Incarnation Camp in 2010. He joined the 'Pioneer Village', the oldest group, made up of 14-to-15-year-olds, where he was with 10 fellow Spaniards, but he always had a desire to mix with the American campers.

"Immediately, there was a small language barrier," Smith remembered, upon meeting Rodri in their shared tent for the first time. "I could talk Spanish on a very elementary level, but he very quickly adjusted to English and found comfort in overcoming it."

The pair were "attached by the hip," Smith and Christensen recalled. They cooked together, were paired for daily tasks and bonded over Rodri's love of SpongeBob SquarePants. Rodri was enthusiastic about any activity — swimming, climbing, rope swinging or canoeing. He had a good singing voice and would frequently serenade the camp with a mix of English and Spanish songs, most notably 'I Like It' by Enrique Iglesias.

He and Smith often faced off in "epic ping-pong battles", but there was only ever one sport Rodri truly embraced. "The only time he would complain was if football was not on the day's itinerary," Christensen said.

"I was not huge into football, but Chris and my friend Felipe would often play with him," he added. "Watching him, we all thought, 'This kid seems unnaturally good', and began to wonder if all children from Spain shared this talent."

They did not. The rest of the camp's Spanish contingent would join in with the football matches and watched the final, but the passion was not the same. Rodri was the outlier.

"He wanted to play football every day, and I remember saying to my friends that he was the best person I had played with, even though he was 14," Garrecht-Williams said. "I don't know whether he even weighed 100 pounds (45kg). If he beat me, I could pick him up and move him."

Rodri did not flaunt his footballing ability. He was kitted out in Atletico Madrid-branded gear, even down to his backpack, but only revealed his academy status once Smith asked about it. He, like all of his fellow campers, came to Deep River to leave home behind and experience a summer away from football, his parents knowing it was a luxury that might soon be lost to their gifted son.

"We did not fully understand the situation he was in," Smith said. "We said to him how we would casually support the U.S. in the Olympics, but if they lost, it would not end our day. It was so different for him: like a religion."

Imitating Heroes on the Beach

After Spain's historic win was secured, Rodri ran giddy laps of the camp and the smile never dropped. The camp had a beach trip in the days following. A football was taken along, and he spent the afternoon imitating his Spanish heroes. He volunteered to go in goal for a penalty shootout, and told everybody he was Spain's captain, goalkeeper Iker Casillas. When he came out of goal and scored, he was suddenly Iniesta.

The young camper who would grow up to receive the Ballon d'Or in 2024 and captain Spain's World Cup-winning team two years after that is remembered by Christensen as being an "eager and really nice kid, with a great smile", coming out of his quiet shell by the end of that stay, when he departed amid goodbye hugs and tears.

Full Circle

Rodri returned to Deep River in each of the following two summers — in 2011 as a camper once more and in 2012, then aged 16, as a volunteer. Smith remembers reuniting with Rodri in 2011 and the pair growing closer, sneaking away from camp on "stargazing" missions, midnight hikes and squirrel hunting, and undertaking one sneaky mission to convert one of the wash houses into a Christmas grotto in the middle of July.

Given Rodri's trans-Atlantic status compared to many of his peers, his email address was not taken as he departed to embark on his professional career. That came to fruition in 2015, when he made his senior debut after joining Villarreal, and it was not until after he had returned to Atletico and then moved to Manchester City in 2019 that the camp's graduates realised Rodri's dream had become a reality.

"In 2022, my friend Allegra was watching a City game and texted our alumni channel, saying, 'This Rodri dude looks like the guy we went to camp with,'" Smith recalled. They took some convincing, but Allegra was right.

"It is funny to see him now as this 6ft 3in (190cm) behemoth, because back then, he was such a small guy," Smith continued. "It was amazing to watch the vindication of his journey going full circle, from pretending to be a Spanish international to his dream coming true."

The group are attempting to reach out after seeing him lift the World Cup, although he has been busy with a post-tournament back operation and completing his move to Camp Nou.

Garrecht-Williams still has a photograph of Rodri from the end of his first summer that he's always wanted to send him. It shows him lying in the sand, wearing big sunglasses, with, of course, a football beside him.

"It caught a little moment of him as a 14-year-old," he said. "On the beach, dreaming, maybe."