Historic night in Venice! Real Madrid's loaned gem scores hat-trick and rewrites Fiorentina history
Serie A has a new teenage king: Franco Mastantuono chose the floating city to produce the performance of his young life and drag Fiorentina to a comeback win almost single-handedly.
Details: Franco Mastantuono scored a hat-trick for Fiorentina in the away match against Venezia, overturning a 0:1 deficit into a 3:1 victory. As Fabrizio Romano reports, the Argentine became the youngest player ever to score three goals for the Viola in a single Serie A match.
The night had started badly for Fiorentina, who found themselves 1:0 down at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, but the 19-year-old winger, on loan from Real Madrid until June 2027, simply decided the match was his. Two quickfire strikes before half-time flipped the game on its head, and after the break he completed his first career hat-trick to seal a 3:1 win. For a player who had not scored in his first three Serie A appearances, this was an explosion of a statement. Real Madrid's decision to send the prodigy to Florence for regular minutes is already looking like a masterstroke: Mastantuono arrived with a huge reputation after breaking through at River Plate and moving to Madrid, and now he has a record that even club legends never managed at his age. For Fiorentina, stuck near the foot of the table after a nightmare start, the teenager's brilliance could be the spark that changes their entire season.
It's worth noting that Mastantuono only turned 19 on August 14, and Fiorentina's list of past hat-trick heroes includes the legendary Gabriel Batistuta, whose record the Argentine has now surpassed.
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Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
