Rodrigo De Paul: “I think we are the best national team our country has ever had”
Rodrigo De Paul spoke about the current Argentina national team and their place in history.
De Paul has been part of the Argentina national team since 2018 and has won every trophy there is to win. He played the assist to Angel Di Maria in the Copa America final, he lifted the Finalissima and played in every match at the World Cup.
Still only 28 years old, De Paul spoke in an interview with TyC Sports about the current status of the Argentina national team. Here is what he had to say when talking about coach Lionel Scaloni:
“He did everything from the ground up, it’s a set of things that he generated in the team. He taught 19 players how to wear the shirt of the Argentina national team, with the help of the captain and the experienced guys.
“But the most important thing he got was the camaraderie, we are very close friends inside the camp and on the pitch. And a very good bond was created, which is not easy when there are so many players. But it was always very clear that the important thing is the national team and we all understood what our piece in the puzzle was. I think we ended up making, if you’ll forgive me, the best national team our country has ever had.
“I’m not saying that out of ego, far from it. I think the national team had better players than the ones that make up this one, but as a team, we beat all the current champions. The last American champion (Brazil), the last European champion (Italy) and the last World champion (France).
“It wasn’t easy, we did the qualifiers without losing, we won in Bolivia after 15 years, we won in Peru after I don’t know how much time, we broke the record of undefeated matches. As a team, this national team achieved something extremely important and also the connection to the public… The people saw that we were fans who had the chance to defend the jersey.
“I don’t want anyone to get angry with me because Argentina has an extremely important and rich history.
“Being world champion is the key to eternity, because we are going to be eternal. You go into the AFA premises and you see photos of the champions of ’78 and ’86 and you stare at them. And now, we are going to be there. It’s incredible.”