Real Madrid ‘Agree Deal’ for Record-Breaking Midfielder Transfer

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Sports Illustrated FC

·6 juin 2025

Real Madrid ‘Agree Deal’ for Record-Breaking Midfielder Transfer

Real Madrid are reported to have agreed a deal to sign 17-year-old midfielder Franco Mastantuono from River Plate.

Already with 61 senior appearances under his belt, Mastantuono became the youngest player to feature in a competitive fixture for the Argentina national team when he came off the bench in Thursday’s 1–0 victory over Chile.

Vidéos OneFootball

Long hailed as a potential star of the future, it looked as though Paris Saint-Germain were close to winning the race for Mastantuono’s signature, but a renewed approach from Madrid appears to have seen them emerge victorious.

“The sale is settled, in the final talks it remains to agree on some details,” a River source told Reuters.

Mastantuono is expected to move to Madrid for a fee of $45 million (€39.3 million). He turns 18 in August and would be eligible to move to Europe at that point, but River are expected to keep the young midfielder on loan until the end of the calendar year.

Mastantuono broke records with his appearance for Argentina. / IMAGO/justpictures.ch

Daniel Brizuela, River’s former scouting director, opened up to AS about his longstanding confidence in Mastantuono’s potential.

“From the first ball, I could see he was special,” Brizuela recalled. “My instinct told me he was a child prodigy, a superlative talent.

“I saw he was a player for European football. He was very intelligent, skilled, with great vision and great technical ability. The way he made decisions and his speed on the field were absolutely different. Plus, his body type and genetics were spectacular. I told the coach who was with me, ‘This is a kid for Real Madrid’.

“He had the DNA of a Real Madrid player. He always has. At Real Madrid, they look for a player with special qualities, and he had them all: supreme intelligence, interpretation of the game, individual technique, ambition and a high competitive level. In that ‘field’, he played as if he were at the Bernabéu. It was a spontaneous comment, but based on an intuition that doesn’t usually fail me.”