The first to publicly call it out was Miguel Galán, president of CENAFE, who posted on X that Madrid had committed an ineligible lineup. In his view, the club acted with “manifest bad faith” by registering the Argentine with a B team number in order to bypass the first-team squad number restrictions.

MADRID — Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has praised the maturity of teenager newcomer Franco Mastantuono and downplayed the player's choice of former Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi as the world's best player.

Their signing of the Argentina international was a long time in the making, and many other clubs were interested too

Real Madrid are gearing up for the first match of their 2025–26 La Liga campaign. Expectations are high under Xabi Alonso, especially with new signings Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and Álvaro Carreras all expected to get the nod at the Santiago Bernabéu in Tuesday’s clash.

En su presentación como jugador del Real Madrid, el juvenil delantero argentino Franco Mastantuono alabó el jueves la figura de Lionel Messi, ex del