From frustration in Europe to artillery in the Americas: meet Mastriani

9 is in the area! The attacker Gonzalo Mastriani Arrived to Athletico last Monday (29) with the status of main signing of the year and top scorer.

But the negotiation between Furacão and América-MG was not simple. It took more than 40 days between back and forth until the signing of the contract, valid until the end of 2026. Rubro-Negro will pay around R$10 million for 100% of the player’s rights.

At 30 years old, the center forward deviates from the club’s traditional signing philosophy of buying younger athletes with resale in mind. But, for the centenary, Furacão’s focus is to put together a competitive team and they lacked a top scorer to replace Vitor Roque. There’s no more left.

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“It was a soap opera, it took a long time, but in the end it ended up working out. It was what all parties wanted and I’m very happy to be here. Athletico was the first club to look for me and that was very important for me. Everything I can see what good things people said about Athletico in the few minutes I have here. The goals, the ambition, everything that Athletico wants to achieve in this very important year for the institution… That made me make the decision to come here “, stated Mastriani upon his arrival at Furacão.

Early career and nightmare in Europe

Born in Uruguay, Mastriani lived much of his childhood in Villa del Cerroa neighborhood in the west of the country’s capital, on the other side of Montevideo Bay.

The 1.80m tall left-handed striker took his first steps in football at Sauce, a children’s club in the neighborhood, until he transferred to Cerro, a team with a tradition in Uruguayan football, but which is currently in the second division, in 2006. .

For the Albiceleste club, he played through the youth team and turned professional in 2012. There were two seasons in Uruguay, with 40 games and 14 goals before moving to Europe. Do Cerro was hired by Parma, from Italy, in a controversial transaction with values ​​well below what the Uruguayans expected, as Mastriani had experience with the national team.

One of the reasons would have been that the Uruguayan club did not help him with the treatment of an injury and made him miss the U20 World Cup. In the midst of this, he became a father at the age of 19 to little Francisco.

Already on European soil, in 2013, he ended up playing on loan for Crotone, for five matches. Afterwards, he played for ND Gorica, from Esvolênia, and in 2014 he played for Olhanense, from Portugal, where he played more games (30) and scored six goals. The dream of playing in Europe turned into a nightmare, as Mastriani himself said in an interview with the newspaper The Observer, from Uruguay.

“When I thought I had fulfilled my dream of going to Europe, it was the worst thing that happened to me. I went to a club that was going bankrupt (Parma). I didn’t get paid, they sent me all over Europe, I had a lot of negative experiences and it was It’s difficult to see the positive side. They left me alone and in a place that I had difficulty leaving”, he revealed in 2020.

Fresh start in Uruguay and significant numbers in Ecuador

The solution was to start over at home. But as he had left Cerro in a fight, it was Rentistas who welcomed him in 2016. His good performances took him to Mexico the following year.

He played for Tampico Madero and Alebrijes. Back in Uruguay, he made four appearances for Sud América. But the financial and psychological trauma experienced in Europe was only overcome when he joined Boston River, also in Montevideo, with the help of a psychologist.

“When I was at Rentistas I was still coming out of a difficult moment that had been my time in Europe, my head wasn’t completely focused on football. At Boston River I played again, I had a lot of minutes and I felt good on the field”, Mastriani explained to El País, from Uruguayin an interview from August last year.

Mentally focused, Mastriani rediscovered his passion for football and also artillery when he arrived in Ecuador. At Guayaquil City, in two seasons, he made 54 appearances with 24 goals and five assists.

At Barcelona de Guayaquil, for a season and a half, there were 66 games, with 19 goals and four assists. In 2021, in fact, he was one of those responsible for the semi-finalist campaign of the Libertadores dos Canaries. He was only traded to América-MG because Barcelona ended up signing another center forward for the season (João Jairo Cifuente).

“In the beginning here he didn’t have many opportunities. Then he won the Ecuadorian title in 2020 and played excellent games. He ended up being a very important player in the 2021 Copa Libertadores. That year he was already a player with good technique and a strong aerial game” , remember Christian Carrasco, reporter for Radio Caravana de Guayaquil.

Remarkable spell at América-MG and five goals in “farewell”

Mastriani arrived at América-MG in August 2022. In the first months, it took him a while to adapt to Brazilian football and had few chances with coach Vagner Mancini. In his first year, he made 11 appearances with just one goal and one assist.

Last year, he had more opportunities and began to stand out with good performances in the South American Championship. In total, there were 42 games with 21 goals and one assist. The number placed him as Coelho’s top scorer in the same season in the century. One of these goals, in fact, was against Athletico himself, in the 3-2 victory at the Ligga Arena, with a shot from outside the area.

“It was in the South American Championship, because he was a foreigner, that he began to stand out, score goals and gain a starting position. Before, the coach [Vagner Mancini] I didn’t use him as much to play. With the arrival of Fabián Bustos, he showed his value and started scoring a lot of goals, so much so that he was top scorer in the South American Championship and ended up as top scorer in América-MG that year”, recalls the journalist Edivaldo Miranda, from the newspaper O Tempo de Minais Gerais.

The journalist highlights that, even with the drop to Series B and the striker’s desire to leave, the American fans have a lot of appreciation for Mastriani.

The center forward said goodbye to the Minas Gerais fans at Independência with five goals in the 6-0 rout of Pouso Alegre last week and scored another in the 6-1 win over Ipatinga, on Sunday (28). The goals placed the striker as the top scorer in the Americas since the 2nd half of 2023.

“Coelho’s fans like him a lot, but now they are orphans. Even though the fans knew he wanted to leave, they respected him and thanked him for his time here, because he was always very professional. He played at the beginning of the Campeonato Mineiro, scored five goals in the last week and one more on Sunday. If there’s someone to put the ball to him, it will work out very well at Athletico. Everyone has already seen how high his success rate is,” he adds.

Symbol of The Fanatics? Mastriani explains celebration and tattooing

Mastriani’s traditional celebration is similar to that of the organized fan base Os Fanático. The symbol of the striker’s celebration is the same as that of Athletico fans. The player, however, explained that the arms crossed on the chest mean a tribute to his best friend, who passed away in 2020 and who was a fan of the film “Black Panther”.

“The crossed arms mean ‘Wakanda Forever’. It’s a dedication I make to my best friend who passed away in a tragic accident. He was very fanatical about the film, very fanatical about the actor, who he thought he looked like. So, it’s a tribute that I pay to him every time I score a goal”, he explained.

The striker also has a skull, another symbol of red and black fans, tattooed on his left hand.

“Tattoos have been around for a long time, a happy skull, a way of looking at death too. A little peculiar, right? I knew about the fan symbol, some told me that, I think it’s a good parallel. Getting here, celebrating my brother and that still has to do with the fans is something special, that comes together”, he concluded.

Datasheet

Full name: Gonzalo Mathias Mastriani Borges.
Birth: 04/28/1993 (Montevideo, Uruguay).
Position: attacker.
Height: 1.80m.
Career: Cerro-URU, Crotone-ITA, ND Gorica-LET, Olhanense-POR, Rentistas-URU, Tampico Madero-MEX, Alebrijes-MEX, Sud América-URU, Boston River-URU, Guayaquil City-EQU, Barcelona-URU, América-MG.