When Madrid paid 40,000 euros to Badalona to sign Mariano

Few know Mariano better than the man who was responsible for bringing him to Real Madrid back in 2011, Manolo Romero.

He was the chief scout for Los Blancos in Catalonia for 20 years before being fired by Victor Fernandez.

The striker maintains his relationship with Romero and, in fact, Manolo acts as a counsellor for the footballer.

"Let's see if we both return to Madrid," he said, half jokingly, half seriously.

Romero remembers the process for Mariano to come to La Fabrica.

"We followed him from a young age, like so many others," he noted.

"From Premia he moved to Espanyol, but as it took a while for him to develop physically, they discarded him and he returned to Premia."

Eventually he signed for Badalona.

"There we got his signing," Romero recalls.

It was along with Sergio Cortes (now an Ebro player) and Madrid paid 40,000 euros for both, far from the 21.5m that he will now cost.

In those first months in Madrid, his father, also called Mariano (his mother, Dominican, is called Mariana) traveled by night bus from Barcelona practically every week to watch him play, and Mariano Jr.doesn't forget where he comes from.

"He is very grateful, he keeps a humble vision of life despite how he is doing," Romero added.

"He doesn't forget who helped him.

"An anecdote that honours and defines him: Without asking for anything, he called to tell me he was giving me a ticket for the Cardiff final, that he was on the AVE in Barcelona and he was waiting for me at the station to pick him up."

But can he contribute the type of football that Real desire?

"He's scored goals all his life, that's why I recommended him, he's a born goalscorer," Manolo proudly states.

"We won't see him walking on the pitch either, and he still has room for improvement."

Manolo's voice cracks with emotion at the thought of seeing his pearl again in Madrid.

Before him, Codina, Trashorras, Aleix Vidal, Kiko Casilla and Aleix Febas were delivered to the club by the scout, and he is also looking forward to working for the club of his life again.

Meanwhile, he'll settle for seeing his boy getting goals in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.