Franco Mastantuono breached an unwritten taboo during his Real Madrid debut.
Franco Mastantuono breached an unwritten taboo during his Real Madrid debut.
Mastantuono, a teenage superstar, was presented as a Real Madrid player on Thursday, his 18th birthday.
After passing a medical, the Argentine signed a six-year contract with Los Blancos.
Real beat Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain to the signing of Mastantuono, who was welcomed to the media by club president Florentino Perez before posing in his new number 30 shirt.
In his subsequent news conference, the adolescent astonished everyone by praising his idol, Lionel Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner who is a pantomime villain at Real Madrid due to his 21-year association with the club’s rival Barcelona.
“For me, Messi is the best player in the world,” Mastantuono remarked. “I didn’t watch others, like Alfredo (Di Stefano), but I really look up to them.”
It was an unusual admission, one that, in the past, did not fare well with the Real faithful.
Federico Valverde was obliged to “clarify a misunderstanding” in 2018 after stating that Messi is superior to Cristiano Ronaldo, a Real Madrid star.
“I wanted to clarify a misunderstanding that occurred today on campus, with the children in an interview,” Valverde told reporters at the time.
“It was a joke about Messi and Ronaldo because he knows I’m from Madrid and I always bet or fight for Cristiano since he’s the best player in the world, as seen by his performance in every match.
“I wanted to clarify that and if I had felt a fanaticism for Messi I would never have signed for Real Madrid, I wanted to clarify that and make it clear that they are the two best players in the world, but I will always be on the side of Cristiano Ronaldo.”
It’s unclear whether Mastantuono will have to offer a similar apology.
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