They called him El Mudo, the mute, for how little he said, and on 18 May 2011 he started at centre-back for Braga against Porto in the Europa League final in Dublin. Runner-up in that final, he took three Peruvian league titles with Sporting Cristal in 2002, 2004 and 2016, finished third at the Copa América in 2011 and 2015, won 75 caps, and appeared in Peru's first World Cup match in 36 years against Denmark in 2018.
Peru legends whose careers overlapped Rodríguez's
One rank above: Rubén Toribio Díaz at #25.
One rank below: Alfredo Quesada at #27.
Peru's editorial top five: Teófilo Cubillas · Héctor Chumpitaz · César Cueto · Hugo Sotil · Teodoro Fernández.