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By a significant margin, Franco Mastantuono is among the most highly regarded offensive midfield talents in the world of football. The adolescent sensation’s exploits with River Plate have garnered praise from a broad range of sources, and teams from all around the world are competing for the opportunity to purchase his services.
As is the case with other clubs, Real Madrid has been actively pursuing the Argentine superstar for a considerable amount of time. To be more specific, at one point in time, they considered him to be their top priority for the forthcoming summer transfer window.
On the other hand, as was disclosed earlier this month, Los Blancos are not the only team in the competition; even their fiercest rivals, Barcelona, are interested in signing the young international sensation.
Continuing to shatter records
Despite the fact that teams in Europe are vying for his signature, Mastantuono is continuing to do what he does best, which is to destroy records.
The club scouts at Real Madrid are persuaded of Mastantuono’s potential, which was shown this week when he smashed multiple records. As a result, Real Madrid is determined to sign Mastantuono, as was disclosed by the MARCA organisation.
In point of fact, the 16-year-old phenom’s cameo appearance in the second half of Tuesday’s match against Libertad was remarkable in many respects.
In the first place, Mastantuono became the youngest player in the history of River Plate to participate in a Copa Libertadores. He also became the fourth youngest player to ever compete in the tournament, having reached the age of 16 years and 254 days.
Not only did the wonderkid just play for River Plate for a period of forty-five minutes, but he also scored the game-winning goal for River Plate that evening, which was made possible by Manuel Lanzini’s outstanding assist.
It goes without saying that it does not take much more to understand why Real Madrid considers him to be a player who has a great deal of promise.
The provision for release
Mastantuono’s situation is exceptional since he is a community player and has a European passport. This is in contrast to the situation of South American players who are under the age of 18 and cannot make the transfer immediately to Europe.
Because of this, the 16-year-old can be signed right away, and Real Madrid will need to take action this summer if they want to take advantage of his tremendous potential.
Despite the fact that the player’s contract with River Plate is set to expire in the summer of 2026, there is a significant release clause that stands at €45 million in the event that a club decides to recruit him this summer.
It is very interesting to note that over the last 10 days of the transfer window, that sum will increase to fifty million euros.
