Florentino Perez has broken one of his longest-held transitions at Real Madrid by letting a new signing wear a high shirt number.
Franco Mastantuono has arrived from River Plate for €45million and due to his status as a potential first team star he was given an official unveiling by the club president at the Bernabeu.
However, Mastantuono will be registered as a youth team player, allowing him to wear his career-long No.30 shirt and free up salary space for another first team signing.
LaLiga rules state players must wear numbers between 1-25, a rule which recently thwarted Trent Alexander-Arnold keeping his career long No.66.
Perez too imposes the rule, and wants his starters to wear between 1-11, a standard that made Zinedine Zidane and Jude Bellingham switch to No.5.
Yet for Mastantuono, there has been an exception, as he explained: “I had asked the president if I could wear the number 30.
“It’s very special to me; I’d been wearing it at River Plate, and luckily he accepted and let me.
“It’s a number I was excited to continue wearing.”
Being registered as a youth team player won’t impact Mastantuono’s minutes, as he’s still allowed to play as much for the club as manager Xabi Alonso allows.
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