Rodrigo Javier De Paul (; born 24 May 1994) is an Argentine professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in ...

and the Argentina national team.

Club career

Racing Club

Born in Sarandí,

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adj ...

, 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, but remained unused in the 1–2 home loss. On 10 February 2013, De Paul played his first match as a professional, replacing

Mauro Camoranesi Mauro Germán Camoranesi Serra (, ; born 4 October 1976) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a right midfielder or right winger. Camoranesi began his career in Argentina in 1995, where he played for Aldosivi and B ...

in the 86th minute of a 0–3 loss at

Atlético de Rafaela Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela, known simply as Atlético de Rafaela, is an Argentine sports club based in the city of Rafaela, in Santa Fe Province. The club is mostly known for its professional football team, that ...

. 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 Club Atlético San Martín, mostly known as San Martín de San Juan, is an Argentine football club from the city of San Juan. The team currently plays in the Argentine Primera B Nacional, the second division of the Argentine football league syste ...

. De Paul 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.

Valencia

On 9 May 2014, it was announced that

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the S ...

agreed to a US$6.5 million deal for De Paul with Racing. He signed a five-year deal with ''Los Che'' on 6 June, and made his

debut on 23 August under head coach

Nuno Espírito Santo Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo (born 25 January 1974), often referred to as simply Nuno, is a Portuguese football manager and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of Saudi Professional League club Al ...

, replacing

Paco Alcácer Francisco "Paco" Alcácer García (; born 30 August 1993) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker for UAE Pro League club Sharjah FC, Sharjah. Having come through ...

in the 65th minute in a 1–1 away draw against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Eu ...

, but being

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

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 Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La ...

in the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

. He followed this up with his first La Liga goal on 9 April 2015 against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain. They are known as ''Los Le ...

, 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 Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

to his former side Racing Club. He scored his first and only goal in a victory against Bolívar on 24 February in the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

Udinese

On 20 July 2016, De Paul was transferred to Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

club Udinese. He made his debut on 20 August 2016 against

AS Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

in a 4–0 defeat. He scored his first goal for the club on 29 January 2017 against

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 season ...

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 The 2018–19 season was Udinese Calcio's 39th season in Serie A and their 24th consecutive season in the top-flight. The club competed in Serie A, finishing 12th, and the Coppa Italia, where they were eliminated in the third round. Spanish coach ...

and also nine assists. On 15 October 2019, De Paul 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 Paul became Udinese's club captain in December 2020, replacing Kevin Lasagna.

Atlético Madrid

On 12 July 2021, De Paul signed a five-year contract with

. He joined his new club just days after winning the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

with Argentina. On 7 December 2021, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 away win against

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Por ...

in the final group game of the

2021–22 UEFA Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League was the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid d ...

International career

De Paul made his senior international debut for

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

in a 4–0 victory against

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–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 Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Ass ...

after beating

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

2–1 in the third-place match. On 3 July 2021, De Paul scored the opening goal in a 3–0 win over

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

in the quarter-finals of the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to 10 July 2021. The to ...

in Brazil. In the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the tournament against the hosts

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, De Paul's long pass set up

Ángel Di María Ángel Fabián Di María (born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Argentina national team. He can play as either a winger or attacking midfielder. Di María began his career with ...

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 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

. He was also part of the squad that won the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

Personal life

Rodrigo's mother is of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent, which earned him

Italian citizenship Italian nationality law is the law of Italy governing the acquisition, transmission and loss of Italian citizenship. Like many continental European countries it is largely based on ''jus sanguinis''. It also incorporates many elements that are ...

. De Paul was in a relationship with Argentine model Camila Homs for twelve years. They have two children together. In January 2022, the couple confirmed that they were separating. De Paul has been in a relationship with Argentine singer

Tini Stoessel Martina Stoessel Muzlera (; born 21 March 1997), known professionally as Tini (stylised in all caps), is an Argentine singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and model. She began her career by appearing on the Argentine children's television series ...

since August 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each De Paul goal.''

Honours

Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, previously known officially as the European/South American Nations Cup and commonly as the Artemio Franchi Cup, is an official intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested ...

Individual *Copa América Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

Profile
at the Atlético Madrid website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Paul, Rodrigo 1994 births Living people Argentine people of Italian descent People from Avellaneda Partido Argentine footballers Association football midfielders Argentine Primera División players Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers La Liga players Valencia CF players Atlético Madrid footballers Serie A players Udinese Calcio players Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Italy Argentina international footballers 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players Copa América-winning players Footballers from Buenos Aires