In 1900, when he was studying engineering, at the age of 21, Rodríguez became fond of football after watching a match between English sailors and Català FC.

[4] For this reason, together with two friends, classmates from the University, Octavio Aballí and Luis Roca Navarra, he created a football team which was officially established on 28 October 1900 as the Sociedad Española de Fútbol and debuted on 20 January 1901 under the name Club Español de Fútbol, which would later change to Real Club Deportivo Español in 1910.

[5][6] This group of students led by Rodriguez made the nationality of its members its main hallmark: all of them were Catalan or born in the rest of Spain, and thus differed from most other teams, in which there were a large number of foreigners, especially English.

[2] Together with Joaquim Escardó, Ángel Ponz, and Gustavo Green, he was part of the team that won the first edition of the Campionat de Catalunya in 1903–04.

[10] On 28 October 2020, RCD Espanyol's celebrated its 120th anniversary, and the representatives of the club began the day with a visit to the Sant Gervasi cemetery, where they paid homage to the tomb of Ángel Rodríguez, whose grandson also attended the ceremony.