Sao Paulo: Paulinho had grudgingly accepted his Brazil career was over. He was not, however, at peace with how it had ended.
Ronaldo's last dance made grown men cry and there were heart-melting speeches. Paulinho never expected the red-carpet treatment, but he did dream of bowing out on a high. His last few days of national service had, by harrowing contrast, culminated in obliteration by German and Dutch troops.
Things continued to spiral downhill upon Paulinho's return to club duty from the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Till then one of the first names on Tottenham Hotspur's team-sheet, he made just three starts under new manager Mauricio Pochettino, who preferred Nabil Bentaleb, Eric Dier and Ryan Mason.
From being courted by Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Roma, he was suddenly undesirable. So when Guangzhou Evergrande wanted him to join them in mid-2015, he went running.
"Everybody said that would end any hope of returning, but I'd stopped even dreaming about the Seleçao," Paulinho told fifa.com. He didn't earn a single call-up during Dunga's second spell as coach. "My last six months at Tottenham was lost time, and I was just happy to have the opportunity to play football again."
And that he did. Within six months of moving, Paulinho had propelled Luiz Felipe Scolari's side to the Chinese Super League and AFC Champions League crowns, and dazzled at the Fifa Club World Cup - only Barcelona's Luis Suarez scored more goals than him in Japan.
Excelling in that competition, and in that country, wasn't alien to Paulinho. The last time the Club World Cup had been held in Japan, the multifunctional midfielder had inspired Corinthians to vanquish Chelsea in the 2012 final.
His coach back then was Tite. So, when Tite was handed the Brazil reins nine months ago, Paulinho was dreaming of the Seleçao again. And, to the shock of the masses, the 28-year-old was named in Tite's maiden squad. Then his maiden team.
Paulinho hasn't looked back, negating James Rodriguez in a 2-1 win over Colombia, scoring in a 3-0 defeat of Argentina, and helping Brazil leap on to the cusp of winning seven successive World Cup qualifiers for the first time in their history - in Montevideo.
And there, Paulinho headlined a 4-1 victory against Uruguay, becoming the first visiting player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup preliminaries. It also made him only the third Brazilian to bag a treble against La Celeste and the first since his namesake, Paulinho Valentim, in a 3-1 victory in Buenos Aires in the Copa America 1959.
He is also now Brazil's all-time highest-scoring midfielder (nine goals) - a distinction previously shared by Falcao, Alemao, Cesar Sampaio, Dunga and Emerson (six apiece). (Agencies)