Mastantuono leaves Messi behind with a historic record: What did the Argentine achieve?
The Fiorentina forward, on loan from Real Madrid, scored three goals against Venezia at 19 years and 28 days old. He surpassed by 231 days the record Lionel Messi had set in 2007 with Barcelona.
"F ranco Mastantuono was decisive in Fiorentina's first victory in Serie A. The Argentine scored a hat-trick in the 4-2 win over Venezia and, at 19 years and 28 days old, became the youngest Argentine player to score a treble in one of Europe's five major leagues. The record had until now belonged to Lionel Messi.
Messi was 19 years and 259 days old when he scored his first hat-trick for Barcelona, in the 3-3 draw against Real Madrid played at Camp Nou in March 2007. Mastantuono lowered that mark by 231 days
Two goals in just two minutes
The performance of the player on loan from Real Madrid came when Fiorentina needed it most.
Venezia took the lead in the 22nd minute through Akor Adams, but Mastantuono responded with two almost consecutive goals, in the 29th and 30th minutes, to turn the score around before halftime.
Fiorentina extended their lead in the second half thanks to Mateo Pellegrino, who scored in the 66th minute after a move started by Nicolò Fagioli. Venezia tried to pull one back and found space, but Paolo Vanoli's team kept control of the result until Mastantuono appeared again.
The third goal came in the 84th minute. The Argentine received the ball inside the box, tried to beat goalkeeper Filip Stankovic and, after the rebound, the ball ended up hitting him in the face before going into the net. It was his first professional hat-trick and made it 1-4 for Fiorentina. Antoine Hainaut scored two minutes later to make the final score 2-4.
At 19 years and 28 days old, Mastantuono became the youngest Argentine to score a hat-trick in one of Europe's five major leagues. The statistic becomes even more impressive when compared with other historic names. Other standout Argentines are Mauro Icardi scoring at 19 years, 343 days and Gonzalo Higuaín scoring at 20 years, 334 days.
The Fiorentina had lost their first three Serie A matches and went into the game against Venezia still without a point. The victory allowed the Florence side to get off zero in the standings and move into fifteenth place after the fourth matchday.
For Mastantuono , the match marked the end of his wait for goals since arriving in Italian soccer. The Argentine had not scored in his previous matches for Fiorentina and needed just 30 minutes to score twice and set the comeback on course. The third goal completed the first hat-trick of his career.
With these goals, Franco became the youngest foreign footballer to score three goals in the same Serie A match and the youngest Fiorentina player to achieve it, surpassing the record previously held by Claudio Desolati.
The new fact is that Mastantuono, at 19 years and 28 days old , now tops the list of the youngest Argentinians to score a hat-trick in Europe’s five major leagues, taking this record away from Messi.
This is Mastantuono's goalscoring debut in his fourth league match as a Fiorentina player and in the debut of the team's new coach, Paolo Vanoli, following the dismissal of Grosso, who had earned zero points in the first three league matches.
