De Paul praises Messi: You played your heart out for us, thank you captain

Rodrigo de Paul has become, for some time now, Lionel Messi's best 'bodyguard' and confidant.

It is almost impossible to find a notable episode in which the Atletico Madrid midfielder does not appear alongside the former Barcelona man.

A lot of time together gives rise to numerous confidences, such as the one revealed by De Paul to the press after the victory against Brazil, as Argentina won 1-0.

"Great victory in Maracana, although it will be marked by the repression of Argentines, once again, in Brazil. This can't be tolerated, it's madness and it has to stop now," Messi wrote.

De Paul was quick to reply and highlight his contribution against Brazil: "You stood up for the people and played your heart out for us. Thank you captain."

It is worth remembering that Messi finished the season with Inter Miami injured. Of the last nine MLS regular season games - they missed the playoffs - he missed six due to muscle problems.

It was an incredibly bad-tempered match at the Maracana and it saw a clear disagreement between Messi and Rodrygo.

It all started when the captain and leader of the Albiceleste decided to take his teammates off the pitch, not knowing whether the match would be continued or not.

According to Ole, several Brazilian players started to argue and demanded to start the match. It was then that Messi put his foot down and ended up arguing with Rodrygo.

The Real Madrid player said something that Messi didn't like, who ended up grabbing the Brazilian by the back of the neck and shouting the following: "Why are we sh*theads? We are world champions."