Rodrigo De Paul

Rodrigo Javier de Paul born 24 May 1994 in Sarandí, Greater Buenos Aires, De Paul joined Racing Club's youth setup in 2002, aged eight. He was called up to the main squad on 24 June 2012, while still a junior, for a match against Vélez Sarsfield. On 10 February 2013, De Paul played his first match as a professional, replacing Mauro Camoranesi in the 76th minute vs. Atlético de Rafaela. He scored his first goal a month later, netting the last through a long-range shot in a 3-0 win at San Martín de San Juan. De Paúl appeared in 19 matches during the 2012-13 campaign. He then played a key part in 2013-14, featuring in 35 matches and scoring four times. On 9 May 2014, it was announced that Valencia CF agreed to a US$6.5 million deal for De Paul with Racing. He signed a five-year deal with Los Che. and made his La Liga debut on 23 August under head coach Nuno Espírito Santo, replacing Paco Alcácer in the 65th minute in a 1-1 away draw against Sevilla FC, but being sent off just one minute later due to fouling Aleix Vidal. He scored his first goal for the club on 4 December 2014 in the 2-1 win against Rayo Vallecano in the Copa del Rey. He followed this up with his first La Liga goal on 9 April 2015 against Athletic Club, making 29 appearances in all competitions during his first season at the club. After making 14 appearances in all competitions during the first half of the 2015-16 season, including two in the Champions League. On 4 February 2016, he was loaned out by then Valencia manager Gary Neville to his former side Racing Club. He scored his first and only goal in new era for La Academia in a victory against Bolívar on 24 February in the Copa Libertadores. On 20 July 2016, De Paúl was transferred to Italian Serie A club Udinese. He made his debut on 20 August 2016 against AS Roma. He scored his first goal for the club on 29 January 2017 against AC Milan in a 2-1 victory. He started the 2018-19 season with four goals in the first six matches of the Serie A season. He would finish the season as Udinese top goal scorer with nine goals during the 2018-19 Udinese Calcio season and also nine assists. On 15 October 2019, De Paúl signed a new five-year contract at Udinese. He would score seven goals and gain six assists for Udinese in Serie A during the 2019-20 season. De Paúl became Udinese's club captain in December 2020, replacing Kevin Lasagna. On 12 July 2021, De Paúl signed a five-year contract with Atlético de Madrid. He joined his new club just days after winning the Copa América with Argentina. De Paul made his senior international debut for Argentina in a 4-0 victory against Iraq on 11 October 2018, and later became a regular under manager Lionel Scaloni; he was part of the Argentina squad that finished third in the Copa América 2019 after beating Chile 2-1 in the third-place match. On 3 July 2021, De Paúl scored the opening goal in a 3-0 win over Ecuador in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Copa América in Brazil. In the final of the tournament against the hosts Brazil, De Paul's long pass set up Ángel Di María to score the only goal of the match, allowing Argentina to capture their joint record 15th Copa América title and their first major international title since 2008.