Given his style of play, Rodrigo De Paul’s height of 1.80 meters, or five feet eleven inches, places him in the middle range for a professional central midfielder. He’s not the small, low-center-of-gravity dynamo type, nor is he physically intimidating like some holding midfielders. In the most practical sense, his height is unimpressive, which helps people concentrate on what he really performs on the field, which is far more fascinating than any statistic.
Born in Sarandí, Buenos Aires Province, in May 1994, De Paul was reared in part by his paternal grandfather Osvaldo following his parents’ divorce. De Paul eventually obtained Italian citizenship in addition to his Argentine nationality due to his mother Mühl Ferraroti’s Italian ancestry. De Paul was first exposed to organized football when he was three years old. His mother was the treasurer of the local team Deportivo Belgrano de Sarandí. Before he was old enough to recognize it, the sport was a part of the family.
His career journey began with Racing Club in Argentina, followed by Valencia in Spain in 2014 and Udinese in Italy in 2016. There, he spent five seasons honing the engine and technical range that eventually made him one of Europe’s most sought-after midfielders. He was signed by Atlético Madrid in 2021, which solidified his position as the best player in Spain and put him in the company of players who demanded constant focus in every game. Before moving to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer in 2025, he was included in the La Liga squad of the year for the 2024–25 season.
De Paul’s profile is most evident in his international career. In 2018, he earned his senior Argentina debut, and in the years that followed, Lionel Scaloni made him a regular. In the 2021 Copa América, he scored in the team’s victory over Ecuador in the quarterfinals and then set up Ángel Di María’s goal in the final against Brazil, which was the game’s lone goal and Argentina’s first major international trophy since 2008. He began the World Cup final in Qatar in 2022. On penalties, Argentina prevailed. He was on the field during the pivotal moments of the most significant football game in his nation’s recent history.
De Paul received another winner’s medal from the 2024 Copa América and was included in the squad of the tournament, a testament to his consistency in a number of important tournaments. He was confirmed to be a member of Scaloni’s core group when the 2026 World Cup roster was announced in May of this year. He is currently participating on the MLS schedule instead of La Liga or Serie A, but he is still reportedly a reliable member of the national team.
Compared to most elite football players, he has had a more public personal life. Before splitting up in January 2022, a twelve-year romance with model Camila Homs resulted in two children. After that, they had a romance with Argentine singer Tini Stoessel, which lasted from 2021 until 2023 before starting up again in 2025. The on-again aspect garnered the significant attention that celebrity romances in Argentine popular culture typically bring.
