National team manager opens up on Real Madrid youngster’s situation – ‘He’s at a very demanding club’ | OneFootball

When Lionel Scaloni announced his squad for the Argentine national team’s games in the ongoing international break, Franco Mastantuono’s exclusion came as a bit of a surprise.

After all, the Real Madrid star has been earning Scaloni’s faith in recent times and it did not make sense why he would suddenly be dropped. All signs seemingly pointed to his lack of minutes at the club level.

While making revisions to his squad a few days later, however, Scaloni did eventually include the player and he is currently training with the World Cup winners for their game against Mauritiana later today.

Scaloni praises Mastantuono

Argentine national team manager Lionel Scaloni opened up to the media in a recent interview via MARCA where he spoke specifically about Franco Mastantuono and the player’s lack of minutes at Real Madrid.

He began by reaffirming his faith in the young talent and explaining how the situation of his limited playing time are blown out of proportion.

“We are happy with Mastantuono, he is 18 years old. Without going any further, the boy who is playing in Boca now, Tomás Aranda, has come to train with us and is the same age as Franco.

“By this I mean that Franco is a boy, Aranda is a boy. We have to give them time,” he began, explaining how many forget how young Mastantuono is.

Mastantuono has not been playing regularly at Real Madrid. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

“He is at a very demanding club (Real Madrid). The most demanding in the world. That makes everything beautiful. It’s enough for me that he understands his situation,” he added.

Explaining how highly he rates the youngster as a member of his national team squad, Scaloni said,

“With us, he will have all the trust and above all that he should understand that he has to go step by step. That his career is just beginning, that he has to be ascending, that is the most important thing.”

Finally, he was asked why he initially omitted the Real Madrid star from his squad for the international break and then subsequently included him later, to which he replied with an honest explanation saying,

“It’s simple. We were going to play a single game, but we couldn’t fill up with players. It was useless.”

“It wasn’t just him, there were others. When they told us that there was a second game, we called him,” he added.

“I appreciate their eagerness to be there. Sometimes, not that there’s anything wrong with it, they get off the plane and ask the guys, ‘What do you think about me calling you up later?’ Thank goodness they’re truly mature,” he added.