After claiming last year that Real Madrid’s Mastantuono was better than Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, he faced renewed questions as the Argentine has done little to prove it at the club.
Franco Mastantuono's first steps at Real Madrid did not meet the expectations generated by his € 45 million arrival from River Plate. However, the Argentine has a fervent defender in the Spanish football debate.
Jorge D'Alessandro, former Argentine player and coach, reacted during the sports program El Chiringuito to the praise he had for the 18-year-old youngster back in July of last year, when he was still a River Plate player. "Mastantuono is better than Lamine Yamal," he had said at the time.
"Do you regret it?" they asked D'Alessandro on the same Spanish program. "Not at all, I need time. Tick tock," he replied, alluding to the fact that Mastantuono needs time to adapt to Real Madrid to surpass the Barcelona winger.
The young Argentine midfielder who started the season as a starter at Madrid faces an uncomfortable situation: in the last two months, he has not been in the starting lineup and has accumulated barely 70 minutes of play in 13 matches, a decline that shows the loss of confidence from the coaching staff currently led by Alvaro Arbeloa.
After his last start on Feb. 1 against Rayo Vallecano, Mastantuono has been completely relegated from the starting lineups. Since that match, he has added only 43 minutes in La Liga, distributed as 21 against Getafe and 14 against Mallorca, both matches ending in defeats for the white side.
Additionally, the red card he received against Getafe left him out of the duels against Celta Vigo and Elche, further reducing his playing time. In contrast to his initial period, when he started eight of the first 12 matches under Alonso, his role on the squad has diminished.
Alvaro Arbeloa, Real Madrid's coach since midseason, following Xabi Alonso's tenure, has preferred both veteran players with more weight in the locker room and young players promoted from Castilla. This policy, combined with Mastantuono's status as a newcomer and the strong internal competition, has complicated the former River Plate player's chances of earning minutes.
On the international stage, the situation is no longer favorable. In the Champions League series against Benfica, Mastantuono played only 13 minutes in the second leg. Against Manchester City, he played 14 minutes in a rout in favor of Real Madrid, while against Bayern Munich, he did not even add official minutes, despite warming up throughout the second half.
The Spanish capital side is going through a campaign in which La Liga seems already out of reach. This scenario leads Arbeloa to plan rotations for upcoming matches, including the imminent clash against Girona and the crucial second leg against Bayern Munich.
The return of names like Jude Bellingham and the absence of Aurelien Tchouameni due to injury give priority to starters like Eduardo Camavinga in the search for a comeback in Europe, once again relegating Mastantuono to a secondary role.
In the event of elimination in the Champions League, the absence of a need to rotate players could translate into even fewer opportunities for Mastantuono in the domestic tournament. Meanwhile, Lionel Scaloni, coach of the Argentine national team, is closely monitoring the situation's evolution and evaluating its impact on the final World Cup roster.
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