De Paul: “Being world champion has changed my life, I’m a better person than I was before the World Cup”

He is happy. Enjoy, like never before. Rodrigo de Paul feels undoubtedly better since he won the title in the World Cup Qatar 2022 with the Argentine national team, and he said this in an interview on the program “Llave a la Eternidad”, public television.

The midfielder, an icon, a staple of Lionel Scaloni’s Whites, recounted the details of conversations with the DT and with his idol, partner, friend and personality, Lionel Messi, during the historic World Cup dispute.

The best of the exclusive interview with De Paul:

“I have a lot of footage of him training at dawn, at 2am, saying ‘Today is October 4th, there are 42 days left until the World Cup and we are preparing like this.'”

“Scaloni came to the Mallorca-Athletic match. We already knew Qatar’s opponents. I told him ‘a good draw’ for Saudi Arabia. He told me ‘No!’ It’s the worst thing that could happen. We think it’s an easy pick and when “the whistle seems to turn everything down.” Said and done.

“Before the World Cup I didn’t have a good time. They said I wouldn’t be able to play in the World Cup, that my head was in another place, the truth is that I haven’t left my house for the last two months. I was very focused…

“After the match against Arabia, I spoke to Leo and said: ‘Our World Cup can last five days if we don’t win. We talked about how this could be his last World Cup match, and he told me “it’s not the last”. And when it was over, he told us, “I enjoyed the World Cup again.”

“I try to live the same life as usual, but being the world champion has changed my life. Emotionally, the affection of people, the recognition, the feeling that they are part of the minority of world cup champions. I am a better person than I was before the world cup.”

“I would have taken the pain I had during the World Cup, but the problem was knowing I was left out. I started warming up, I felt comfortable and then we took a few shots. When I kicked the first time, I saw the stars. I started to do … and I don’t know who saw me.” .

“In the dressing room, before the match started, I heard Leo (Scaloni) say to ‘Bala’ and ‘Lea’ Paredes: ‘The game is just beginning, you’re both warming up.'” She gave it to me. I knew I was going to injure my teammates on the pitch. I had to. To be close to De Jong, and my opinion was to cancel him. Fortunately, it went well.

“At the World Cup, to get rid of bad thoughts, I relied a lot on my girlfriend, Tini, who made me disconnect from everything I felt.”

“When we were winning, we tried to keep a low streak by the coaching staff. He told us, ‘Look, we’re going to lose too, and that’s when nobody has to go down.'”

“In the penalty shootout in the final, when Gonzalo (Montel) scored the goal, the first thing I thought of was Leo. I would hug him. That month I realized how hard all the World Cups had been for him before. He is the face of everything, and he has tried again and again. Once, and again, and deservedly so.”

“What I experienced at the World Cup I dreamed so much about and it was more than I could have expected. I will never be able to recapture that set of emotions: fear, joy, anxiety. It was all unbelievable, but we also went through difficult times.”