“When De Paul played, you just sat there looking at him”

Ramón “Monchi” Medina has Racing de Avellaneda in his blood. A lifetime dedicated to the club where He has seen his young values ​​take shape and some of them were fortunate enough to succeed. Assistant utility worker between 1994 and 1997, he became the head of the section until he began to take charge of baby football. He currently coordinates it and is recognized as a headhunter.

One of those promises that passed through his hands was Rodrigo de Paul, who after a spectacular Copa América has just signed for Atlético. Di María's assistant in the final against Brazil in Maracaná, the midfielder had been at a high level for five seasons in Udinese before the rojiblanco team launched into his services. But Medina already knew from a very young age that he would go far. “Rodrigo is a boy as you see him now, fun, he encourages the group and football, when he was seven years old in baby football, it was how he is being seen in the national team“, counts for AS.

“De Paul was already the handle of the team, the one who He would get angry when things went wrong, he would ask the goalkeeper for the ball and would come out from below to dribble, play and set up the game, he was going to push up to generate goal plays and he was very complete. As the years passed it was completed. I always told him that I was a national team player. Of those admirable boys, when the games started you would sit and look at him. He didn't throw bicycles or things like that, but he was very complete. From starting at the bottom, starting play, defending, he also did that when he was very little and was ten or eleven years old, “Monchi adds.

Regarding his potential, Ramón remembers a story that already hints at Rodrigo de Paul's category from a very young age. “When they made the configuration of the tournaments here, they made the selection of the 1994 category and The first one they chose was him and that category beat them all. The national teams from Capital Federal came and beat them, those from Loma, Montegrande, Lanús and they were unbeatable. “

De Paul came to Valencia in 2014 as a wing player or midfielder closer to the front, before exploding in Udinese as a midfielder, but Monchi always saw him as the organizer of the game. “Later in youth he changed a bit, because he was always skinny and at some point he had to work harder on his physique and be patient with the game. They gradually led him to another position. He went to the midfielder or to the sides, but for me, he was always the classic number 10, but the complete 10 that generates game, mark, help … “, sentence. De Paul arrives at Atlético at the best moment of his career, with characteristics much like Simeone and aims to play a fundamental role in the rojiblanco team.