Rodrigo De Paul is revving up: can 'El Motorcito' fuel Inter Miami, help fellow Argentine Lionel Messi to multiple trophies?

The abuse flew into Rodrigo De Paul’s social media over the first few weeks of the 2022 World Cup. Argentina, among the favorites to win the tournament, had endured a rocky start to the competition. The fans needed a scapegoat. And in De Paul, they had a perfect archetype. Here was a dirty work player, the kind of guy who runs a lot, tackles a lot, but doesn’t offer loads when it comes to the actual kicking of a ball. Argentina, as a team, were struggling defensively and lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia. Blame the player who is usually quite good at defending.

What happened next was a pretty good example of how fickle football fans can be. He starred in a 2-0 win over Poland to close out the group stage, and was suddenly everyone’s favorite footballer. Once a waste of space, his teammates were taking to social media to praise El Motorcito (translation: the little engine).

The nickname stuck, and has stayed with him in the three years since – so much so that Inter Miami announced his signing with a video, captioned "the engine is on."

It remains an appropriate moniker for De Paul, who is at his best when he is on the move. The 31-year-old is, in other words, a perfect fit for Miami. That seems to have been forgotten amid the furor and vitriol of the way the Herons have navigated MLS salary cap restrictions. What we have here, clever monetary policy notwithstanding, is an elite defensive midfielder, signing for a team that badly needs legs in the midfield. Throw in the fact that he would perhaps actually physically destroy someone for Lionel Messi, and this is a wonderful piece of business for Miami, who have increased their chances of winning MLS Cup immensely – and set themselves up for the post Sergio Busquets era in style.

The nickname stuck, and has stayed with him in the three years since – so much so that Inter Miami announced his signing with a video, captioned “the engine is on.”

Let’s get the gripes out of the way. Miami signing De Paul has made the rest of MLS – and its fans – remarkably annoyed. In theory, everyone operates under the same salary cap rules, ones that make it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to stack your team with high-priced stars. You are not supposed to be able to sign De Paul when you already have Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. Do teams like it? Probably not, but those are the rules.

What Miami have done is sidestep them – albeit legally. In effect, they have minimized their participation in his salary this year, bringing him in on a prorated loan for the rest of the season with an “option” to buy from Atletico Madrid in 2026. At that point, it is widely assumed that he will become a designated player. Put more simply: Miami take less of a financial hit now, before paying up big time in 2026, presumably the equivalent of the money that might have gone to Busquets. There are some caveats here. The first is that De Paul has reportedly committed his long-term future to Miami, with talk of a contract lasting as long as 2029. He will likely outlive the Messi, Busquets, and Suarez era in South Beach.

But that doesn’t really matter right now. De Paul is a win-now signing, sneakily fit in to circumnavigate some of the strictest spending rules in sports.

Miami perhaps wouldn’t have done this if De Paul was not an ideal fit. It is worth remembering that there any number of global stars who likely would have agreed to a similar deal to play with Messi (are you listening, Neymar?). But De Paul is the right man for this job.

It starts with some basic tactical nerdiness. Javier Mascherano has tinkered with his Inter Miami system a bit of late, but at the heart of things, he likes to play a 4-4-2 of sorts. The defensive four pick themselves. The front two are Messi and Suarez. The bit in the middle gets more complicated. Busquets is a locked-in starter for one defensive midfield position, but badly needs runners around him to counter the fact that he is a defensive liability in the back-and-forth of MLS. Yannick Bright was Tata Martino’s favored option there, and Mascherano has employed the Italian-American for that job more sparingly.

But that still leaves two spots made available to a handful of players. There is Venezuelan attacking midfielder, Telasco Segovia. Also available is versatile wide midfielder Tadeo Allende. There is perhaps also a shout for Benjamin Cremaschi, the most talented of the three, but the trickiest tactical fit.

The most obvious configuration would seem to be removing Bright for De Paul. And that’s basically what Mascherano did last night. He set up a bit of a wonky 4-2-3-1, with a De Paul-Busquets double pivot, with Segovia and Allende out wide. In possession, it was expansive, with Segovia and Allende providing width. Out of possession, Miami squeezed spaces, going to a narrower 4-4-2. Tellingly, Bright didn’t see the field. De Paul went the whole 90.

This is something most coaches would describe as a “good problem to have.” But it’s still a bit of a tactical headache.

Either way, De Paul is a game-changing asset for the Herons.

El Motorcito is not the only nickname De Paul has received over the years. More recently, he has become known as “Messi’s bodyguard.” Watch five minutes of any Argentina game, and you will see why. It is not too much of an overstatement to speculate that De Paul would be willing to take a life for the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. Messi gets fouled? De Paul will foul back, harder. Messi gets pushed? De Paul will shove. Messi is on a yellow and can’t fly into a tackle? De Paul’s got it.

It was clear after Miami’s win over Atlas in Leagues Cup Wednesday night. The Herons scored in second half stoppage time – a wonderful flowing move that saw De Paul and Messi connect in the build-up. Words were exchanged after the goal, and, when there was further back-and-forth at full time, De Paul sprinted across to the guilty Atlas defender to get involved.

That might not be so needed in MLS, where defenders routinely seem afraid to even touch Messi – never mind start a fracas after full time. But De Paul certainly brings the right vibe here.

There are some complexities to be found. Keen mathematicians have noticed that De Paul’s expected buy option kicks in at the same time that Busquets’ contract is due to expire. The former Barcelona star is surely coming to the end of his career, and it is no unfair assessment to admit that he has lost a step this season. And although he hasn’t made a public statement on his future, it would only make sense that the great Catalan walks away from the game at the end of the 2025 campaign.

That coincides perfectly with a window in which De Paul might reasonably request a payday. However, it must be pointed out that De Paul is not a Busquets replacement. He certainly isn’t the same profile of player, either, with Busquets being more of a deep-lying playmaker. But what he will do, long term, is give Miami an elite defensive midfielder. They will have to adapt their play style – it might yet be a good thing to have more legs in midfield once Busquets leaves. But at the very least, there is a succession plan in place for one of the game’s greats to leave with grace.

The salary does raise an interesting question, though: what is De Paul worth? Historically, the best designated players in MLS have been bona fide attacking difference makers. They are the guys you shouldn’t be able to afford, who are basically too good for your team, anyway. They operate outside of the salary structure because they shouldn’t fit inside the league. Savvy roster construction, traditionally, has been about finding 8-10 very good players, and then a couple more elite ones to give a team an extra boost.

The fact is, most of those players tend to be attacking unicorns. Messi is the obvious one, but attacking stars such as Evander, Lucho Acosta and Cucho Hernandez tend to be better uses of a big chunk of cash. Hardworking midfielders, in all honesty, are easier to come by. If De Paul is being framed as a posh Yannick Bright, then why don’t Miami just settle for the actual Bright and direct the funds elsewhere?

That’s a fair query. And no, De Paul does not represent excellent value for money. It is hardly an outlandish statement to speculate that Miami would want, say, Neymar, instead of him. But the market dictates that MLS clubs have to pay a premium for European talent – regardless of position. There is simply too much of a gap between high-priced veteran and salary-cap destroyer. De Paul would likely not come to be underpaid. The solution is to overpay him – even if that means sacrificing elsewhere.

That might not be savvy business. It probably isn’t. But this is Miami, and they have to cater to Messi. If Messi wants De Paul, Messi gets De Paul.

So, what does this all mean? In the short term, Miami have done three things. The first is that they have increased squad depth that seemed to be badly lacking. They needed more legs in midfield, either from the start or to come off the bench. Those will be invaluable if the Herons are to make a run in Leagues Cup and also push for MLS Cup. Mascherano can now rest some guys when he needs to. That is very important.

Secondly, Miami just got much, much better. Their midfield wasn’t their only weakness prior to De Paul’s arrival, but the team was certainly vulnerable in transition, and far too easy to play through. De Paul is a truly elite central midfielder, who would still be an important player for a European team like the one he left in Atletico He will certainly add a new level of quality to Miami.

The third, and perhaps most important, is that he keeps Messi happy. It has been clear, especially over the last nine months, that Messi is the one running the show here. Mascherano is the manager because he is friends with Messi. They reconfigured their front office because Messi may-or-may-not have asked them to. The great Argentine now has one of his best friends to play with. If there were any doubts about him extending his stay in Miami, they would certainly seem to have been erased here.

Throw those together, and Miami’s chances of lifting MLS Cup this winter just got a lot stronger. The little engine might just offer them enough power to go all the way.