Franco Mastantuono

Early career

Mastantuono began his footballing career at the age of three, playing for River de Azul, where his father was the coach. In 2017, while playing for River de Azul, he was invited to trial with professional side River Plate, but despite being offered a place in the academy, he declined, as his family wanted him to continue pursuing a career in tennis. Instead, he signed for Club Cemento at the age of eleven.

River Plate

Two years later, in 2019, Mastantuono decided to take up River Plate's offer, and moved to the Buenos Aires-based club, making his first appearance for the youth side in their last game of the 2019 season, as the youth side won their respective league. The following year, he was registered for AFA competitions, but his season was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina. Mastantuono continued his progression through the River Plate academy, and in August 2023, he signed his first contract with the club – a two-year deal with a €30 million release clause. The following month, he was called up to first-team training by manager Martín Demichelis for the first time. The following year, Mastantuono was included in River Plate's squad for their pre-season preparations, having been called up alongside a number of other youth team players by coach Martín Demichelis. He made his unofficial debut for the club in a friendly match against Mexican opposition Monterrey, before featuring in another friendly against Pachuca. At the end…

Born and raised in Argentina, Mastantuono is of Italian descent and holds dual Argentine-Italian citizenship. He was first called up to the Argentina national under-17 team squad by manager Pablo Aimar while still only fifteen. His impressive performances with the River Plate youth teams caught the attention of Argentina national under-20 team coach Javier Mascherano, who called him up to train with the team in mid-2022. In late May 2025, Mastantuono got his first call-up to the Argentina senior team by Lionel Scaloni for the 2026 World Cup qualifying games against Chile and Colombia. A few days later, on 5 June, he made his international debut by replacing Thiago Almada in a 1–0 away victory over Chile, becoming his country's youngest official debutant at 17 years and 296 days old, surpassing the previous record held by Adolfo Heisinger.

A left-footed midfielder, Mastantuono was described by River Plate youth coach Martín Pellegrino as a being capable of playing as an enganche, a play-making midfielder or a forward, noting his ball-striking ability. River Plate reserve team assistant manager, Pablo Fernández, has also lauded his ball-striking, as well as his ability to score from free-kicks and beat players one-on-one. Mastantuono himself has stated that he looks up to River Plate forwards Ignacio Fernández and Matías Suárez, as well as fellow Argentine Julián Alvarez and the likes of Phil Foden and Neymar, and tries to model his style of play on them.

Mastantuono was born and raised in Azul in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina, into a family of Italian Argentine background. He took an interest in tennis as a younger child and was a national-level youth player, being ranked in the top 10 of his category.