Franco Mastantuono Breaks Messi's Record in Fiorentina's Win

Franco Mastantuono didn’t just light up Venice. He rewrote a page of Argentine football history.

The Fiorentina winger, on loan from Real Madrid, hit a hat-trick against Venezia to become the youngest Argentine ever to score three goals in a single game in one of Europe’s top five leagues. In doing so, he nudged aside a certain Lionel Messi from a record that had stood for almost two decades.

A record older than Mastantuono himself

On Friday night, Mastantuono was 19 years and 28 days old. That makes him 231 days younger than Messi was when he produced his first hat-trick for Barcelona on 10 March 2007. Messi did it in a Clásico against Real Madrid. Mastantuono did it in Venice, in a crisis-hit Fiorentina side desperate for their first points of the Serie A season.

Different stage, same ruthless instinct.

Fiorentina trailed 1-0 at the break and looked fragile. Then the teenager detonated the game.

Within 98 seconds of the restart, Mastantuono had turned the match on its head with a rapid double, dragging the Tuscan club from despair to control. Venezia never really recovered from the shock. Every time he picked up the ball on the right, the home defence braced itself.

The pressure finally told again in the 84th minute. Mastantuono completed his hat-trick, stretching the lead to 4-1 and effectively killing off the contest. Venezia pulled one back late to make it 4-2, but the scoreline barely captured the sense of release for Fiorentina: first win of the new Serie A campaign, first points on the board, and a new star roaring into life.

Vanoli’s return, Grosso’s brief reign

Plenty of the spotlight naturally falls on Mastantuono. Yet the story of this win also runs through the dugout.

Paolo Vanoli, the coach who had kept Fiorentina in the division last season, was let go in the summer as the club turned to 2006 World Cup winner Fabio Grosso. The gamble backfired quickly. Three games, three defeats, and a grim goal difference of 1:9 told its own tale. Fiorentina looked lost, blunt in attack and brittle at the back.

The club didn’t wait. Grosso was dismissed, Vanoli was brought back this past week, and his return immediately delivered a jolt of clarity and belief. In Venice, his side looked more aggressive, more direct, and willing to lean on the fearless talent of their young Argentine winger.

One game doesn’t fix a season, but it can change its temperature. This one did.

Madrid’s €45m project explodes into life

The obvious question hovers over all of this: how much did Franco Mastantuono cost Real Madrid?

The answer is clear enough. Madrid paid €45 million to sign him from River Plate in 2025, a major outlay for a teenager and a statement that they saw him as one of the next big pieces of their future.

Up to now, the numbers in Spain had been modest. Thirty-five appearances in all competitions, but only an average of 42 minutes per game. Three goals. One assist. Glimpses of quality, not yet a storm.

So Madrid sent him to Florence on loan until next summer, hoping regular football in Serie A would sharpen his edges. On this evidence, it’s working.

Three goals in one night for Fiorentina, and a Messi record overtaken in the process. Madrid’s €45m investment suddenly looks a lot louder.