I can't even ride a bike, Vicente's ordeal after football

He was one of the most skillful wingers in Spanish football, and now his body won’t even let him ride a bicycle. 

Vicente Rodríguez has spoken again after years of silence. In an intimate interview for ‘Mano a Mano,’ Cadena SER’s video podcast hosted by Chimo Masmano, the former Valencia player talks about the high price he has paid after a career marked by injuries.

“I can walk, more or less live a somewhat decent life, but I can neither ride a bicycle nor play a game of padel.” At 44, Valencia’s current ambassador lives with aftereffects that prevent him from enjoying a fully active life.

🎧#PODCAST Mano a mano, con@ChimoMasmano
🎥 2º capítulo con Vicente Rodríguez

💣Títulos, lesiones y aquí se defiende ante las críticas como embajador del @valenciacf

Este jueves 16, íntegro aquí: https://t.co/cOlX7PpNUE

Un videopodcast de Radio Valencia Cadena SER #ManoAManopic.twitter.com/xnBWd3IW9E

— SER Deportivos Valen (@SERDepValencia) October 13, 2025

Asked about the phrase that always followed him — “Vicente, the best winger in the world; how great he would’ve been if not for the injuries” — the former international didn’t shy away from reflecting. “I would’ve liked that, not having injuries, and maybe I would have played twice as many matches for Valencia… or maybe I’d have been at another team, I don’t know,” he said with the calm of someone who has made peace with his past.

Vicente recounts the ordeal he still lives through daily, between surgeries and persistent pain. “I’ve had three operations on my right hip and two on my ankle. Sitting I can more or less manage, but I have to bring my little cushion because otherwise my glute burns,” he explains with resignation.

His testimony is a candid confession about the aftereffects elite football can leave. “It’s impossible for me to stand for long; my hip starts to bother me, my ankle too, so I go, I sit, I get up, I keep moving around a bit,” he recounted.

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

📸 JOSE JORDAN - 2011 AFP