The Spanish media "Marca" wrote that in recent years, in addition to Mastantono, River Plate has also trained other outstanding players who directly join the giants, such as Alvarez (Manchester City, later transferred to Atletico Madrid), Enzo (Chelsea) and Echeviri (Manchester City).
The Riverbed continues to produce talented stars with world influence, because it is part of the Riverbed management strategy. Under this strategy, the club has invested about $200 million in sports infrastructure, including a thorough renovation of the "River Academy".
In the riverbed, investment in youth training is much more than football, and its core is to cultivate people and athletes. About 80 young players aged 11 to 18 from Argentina and abroad live in this carefully managed environment, ensuring accommodation, medical coverage, emotional companionship and school scholarships.
A new 5,000 square meters building under construction will be completed and put into use in 2026. "River Bed Home" will be equipped with a physiotherapy area, a gym, a locker room and an educational space, with a RiverDAR project built-in, allowing youth training players to complete their high school studies in the direction of sports. All of this is integrated into a comprehensive model that combines technology, psychology, nutrition, neuroscience and education, focusing on inclusion, equality of opportunity and fostering all-round players.
He Pedal regards youth training not only as a stage, but also as the foundation of a model that combines sports excellence, humanistic care and applied science. It's a comprehensive approach to transforming rookies into professional players and fostering young people into future-oriented people. Comprehensive training starting from the basics has a distinct identity, and the echelon and the team share the same set of tactical concepts.
After Mastantono's transfer to Real Madrid for 45 million Euro, River Plate strengthened its development strategy to have their talent as long as possible and ensure that their transfer to Europe also benefits the club. Therefore, the club has set high liquidated damages for young stars such as Batista Duddin (120 million euros in liquidated damages), Alex Voischi, Lautaro Rivero, Faquento Colidio, Portillo and Galarsa Fonda (all 100 million euros).
According to CIES data, River Plate was the non-European club with the largest number of players to the top five leagues, with a total of 51 players before Mastantono joined Real Madrid since 2005. 6 players trained by the Riverbed won the World Cup championship with Argentina in 2022 (Montier, Pezera, Guido Rodriguez, Enzo, Palacios and Alvarez).