Great finish today by Franco. Great pass by Vini and excellent movement by Kiki to drag the defender.
Mastantuono shows so much on the field. Can’t help but wonder if Rodrygo on the right would’ve enjoyed the same amount of time on the ball with Xabi as coach. The goal really needed to come, in fairness, but there’s a lot of quality and intensity there.
He found the net on 23 September, the same day that Alfredo Di Stéfano scored his debut goal for our team, 72 years ago. The forward discussed his emotions with Realmadrid TV: "They told me when I came in, it's unbelievable. It makes me incredible proud to share that day with him. Of course, I wouldn't compare myself to such a great player, but these kinds of small details are lovely. It's a special feeling and an incredible moment. I've been waiting for tonight for a while and luckily it happened for me. And the team got a great result, so that's really positive, I'm really happy."
This alone makes him a legend. What a king lol. How much raw intelligence (ability to think and communicate with metaphors) and especially confidence do you need to have to say something like this. It shows on the pitch.
Yeah, but have you seen our new "11 year old kid" that we just signed for our basketball system? Madrid has announced a new addition to their academy, a center prospect playing on the Infant A team🇲🇱 Moussa Balla Traore, out of Bamako Mali, who’s listed as being born October 24th 2013…. https://t.co/4A8AMX2evr pic.twitter.com/m7VXjBsBkN— nbadraftpoint (@nbadraftpoint) September 19, 2025
Quality is clear to see, but his off the ball work is probably the reason Xabi does not hesitate to start him. Dude is on a MISSION every time he loses possession or the team loses it in his area. Fights like hell. He probably won't play as much as the season progresses but he's already shown he belongs here.
It's funny that's never too soon to say that a player will certainly be a success here, but if you dare to say he might not be it, you see people foaming like rabid dogs saying ITS TOO SOON TO SAY ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT HIMMMM!!!!!1111 It's not surprising one side of the world mourns death with prayers and respect while the other burns cities down. There are clearly two groups of people in the world nowadays: Rational and Irrational.
You can say he won't succeed. But there will be counter argument from those who think he has what it takes to succeed. If that is met with mocking, reaction will also be the same. It's not like you deal with every discussion rationally and other side doesn't.
I haven’t see any evidence of that regarding this player. Any foaming like rabid dogs about him because someone has criticized him.
Matsa.Matsata...Matso... Franco outside of the fact he looks 32 has shown that he has an engine on him. It looks like Xabi respects that a lot and plays him as well. A huge reason why Fede is considered elite is because of his workrate.
His head is clearly in the game. He's involved in the game and his teammates trust him to play with them.
In terms of workrate on and off the ball, yes. In terms of style and ability on the ball, they are very different players in my opinion. But Franco needs to keep this up, he's made a fantastic impression on the Bernabeu, because the RM fans love players that work hard. The rest will come with time!
He reminds me more of James Rodriguez in that regard. Not necessarily the best dribbler but still quite clean technically and with a great touch.
The characteristic I like most about Mastantouno is his potential to become a team leader/captain. It seems to me that only Bellingham and Carva have real potential to be team leaders on the pitch. It's true that I like vocal players who are not afraid to express their opinions and silence their opponents, protest to the referee or, as Hierro did a long time ago, even silence their teammates (looking at Vinicius). I know that I am biased because i like players who are fighters/hard workers, but i think he had an amazing start to his RM career. The future looks bright.
I get the same James vibe, he's got a very similar game. He's hustling alot but at the end of the day there are other players that can cover more ground with the same effort who also have more stamina and run them down, over and off the pitch. Kroos on the other hand made a career out of never running more than 15 meters.