Rodrigo de Paul left a note in Lionel Messi's room two months before the World Cup
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Rodrigo de Paul left a note for Lionel Messi in his room in camp for Argentina, and the midfielder got everything spot on.
Whatever happened during the World Cup, there were people ready to say it was all being set up for Messi to finally win the one prize that had eluded him.
Portugal's players were extremely adamant that their loss to Morocco was all down to the fact that FIFA wanted to give the Argentina star the trophy.
That seemed a bit of a stretch considering they weren't even in the same side of the draw and would have had to get past then reigning world champions France just to get to the final.
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Messi didn't disappoint either, scoring in every knockout round of the tournament, and becoming the first man to do so in a single World Cup, having never scored past the group stages in his previous appearances in the competition.
He was instrumental in all those games, and it was the same in the final, as he scored once in normal time, again in extra time and slotted home the first of Argentina's penalties in the shoot-out.
It wasn't only the Portugal players who felt that the trophy belonged to the seven time Ballon d'Or winner, not that they meant it in a nice way.
Messi's teammate Rodrigo de Paul actually left a note in the forward's room during Argentina camp in September, saying they were going to become world champions.
De Paul posts a picture of a paper in which he writes: “I am Rodrigo De Paul (7). It is 9/18/2022. I sign this paper and say that we will win the World Cup two months from now.”
— MC (@CrewsMat10) December 18, 2022
De Paul hid it in Messi's room during the national team camp. pic.twitter.com/eZTJs9lsjh
The best part of the note is the Atletico Madrid star writing his number on it, just in case the Paris Saint-Germain player doesn't know who he is.
At the time, the Albicelestes were in the middle of their World Cup preparations, taking on Honduras and Jamaica in international friendlies.
They came towards the end of their incredible run of 36 games without a loss, with only a warm up game against the United Arab Emirates coming after.
That run was brought to an end by Saudi Arabia in their first group game in Qatar, a momentous win for the team from the Middle East.
It put Lionel Scaloni's team in a whole heap of trouble, as every game from then on essentially became a knockout game, as defeat to Poland or Mexico would have seen them eliminated.
De Paul didn't quite have the headline grabbing tournament his higher profile teammate did, but he was extremely important in midfield.
The former Udinese man did a lot of running in the centre of the park and he was fouled several times by France players throughout the final.
Whilst they were going in it seemed like Didier Deschamps' players were getting frustrated, having been 2-0 down from the 36th minute.
However, they sprung into action in the 80th minute and two goals by Kylian Mbappe, in 95 seconds, forced the game into extra time, and gave the French all the momentum.
Messi scored again in extra time, only for Mbappe to become only the second man to score a World Cup final hat-trick and force the shootout.
However, France and the rest of the world didn't know about the note, maybe everyone would have been a lot more relaxed if they'd known De Paul had already guaranteed the result...
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Twitter
Topics: Football, Football World Cup, Argentina, Lionel Messi, France
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