Mario Cortegana

Mario Cortegana Santos is a Spanish football writer covering Real Madrid for The Athletic. He has followed the club's day-to-day since January 2019 — first at Diario AS, then Goal.com and MARCA — and covered EURO 2020 and the Qatar World Cup along the way (The Athletic bio). His 2022 call that Kylian Mbappe would not sign for Madrid, against the grain, made his name beyond the beat (UAX). He publishes in English and Spanish, runs a 350-plus-video YouTube channel, and teaches sports journalism.[modifier]

Spanish; early life kept private. Studied at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Started on the Real Madrid day-to-day for Diario AS in January 2019 — covering Iker Casillas's institutional return and injury comebacks — then moved through Goal.com and MARCA before The Athletic (The Athletic bio).[modifier]

Joining The Athletic as Real Madrid correspondent in 2021 made him the paper's mercado man; his exclusives now routinely lead the club's news cycle in both languages. He covered EURO 2020 and Qatar 2022 for the outlet (The Athletic bio). Recent fronts include the Vinicius Junior contract saga, the Rodri pursuit, and coaching-succession reporting. Parallel to the beat: a YouTube channel (@MarioCorteganaYT, 54,100 subscribers), 275,000 X followers, and a UAX master's teaching role on current sports-journalism models (UAX, Muck Rack).[modifier]

Calm, factual, anti-clickbait: the mercado reporter Madridistas check before believing a rumor. Bilingual output bridges Spanish reporting and the English-speaking fanbase. Reddit AMAs on r/realmadrid double as sourcing-transparency sessions.[modifier]

iFANN-only numbers, read from live data: YouTube: 54,100 subscribers, 6,050,009 views (fetched 2026-10-13). No Last.fm presence is tracked for this entry. Popularity rank: #39,002 overall, #28,937 by type (ranked 2026-10-19). He holds no placement in iFANN's Global Fame Engine Top 1,000 or any Top-100 scope list. His following is a professional audience of Madridistas with no fandom name.[modifier]

The 2022 Mbappe non-signing call is his signature scoop (UAX). His channel tagline: "corresponsal del Real Madrid para The Athletic." He covered two major tournaments (EURO 2020, Qatar 2022) before age rumors ever surfaced — because none have.[modifier]

No parent, sibling, partner, or child detail is public. Based in Madrid per LinkedIn (LinkedIn). Personal matters never surface in his output.[modifier]

Beats intersect with the figures he covers: Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Vinicius Junior, Rodri. Employed by The Athletic (New York Times Company). Teaches in UAX's sports journalism master's (UAX).[modifier]

No dating history or relationship is documented by any credible source. Status: undisclosed.[modifier]

No net worth figure has been published by a credible outlet; salary-band arithmetic is not a valuation. Revenue lines on record: The Athletic salary, YouTube revenue, sponsorships, and teaching fees.[modifier]