César Soto Grado and his VAR assistants continue to make headlines in Spain. Hours after the Valencia – Real Madrid match, where Kylian Mbappé had a magnificent goal disallowed, images of the offside decision have resurfaced and caused an uproar.
The first La Liga match of 2025 has caused a great deal of controversy since Friday. While Real Madrid played their delayed match from the 12th matchday against FC Valencia at Mestalla, the performance of the referee in the match, César Soto Grado, has sparked significant debate. While much has been made of the red card given to Vinicius Junior for responding to the provocation of the Valencia goalkeeper, who is no stranger to such incidents, the attention in recent hours has turned to Kylian Mbappé. After scoring a magnificent goal against the Che club, the French forward had his effort ruled out for offside.
New images tell a different story
Hours after the media frenzy surrounding Vinicius Junior’s situation, which could lead to a heavy sanction, new unexpected images have surfaced online regarding the disallowed goal for offside by Kylian Mbappé.
Unlike the line shown by the VAR officials, it is clear that at the moment of Jude Bellingham’s pass, the French forward was kept onside by the foot of a Valencia defender. For reasons still to be clarified, the VAR referee, Muñiz Ruiz, selected the image where the French player was offside two seconds after the ball left Bellingham’s foot.
As shown by the images, this is a new scandal that cannot be ignored. Confident, the number 9 made a wonderful move to bypass the Valencia goalkeeper before blasting the ball into the net. Even though the disallowed goal did not affect the final result of the match (as Real Madrid eventually won 2-1 in a hard-fought victory), the incident has made waves. Knowing that goals are valuable in the race for individual titles, KM9 can only be frustrated by these new revelations of refereeing errors in Spain.
Also, considering that this goal came when Real Madrid was trailing, one could argue that a different decision leading to an equaliser could have potentially prevented Vinicius Junior’s excessive frustration. Had Mbappé’s equaliser been validated in the 58nd minute, we probably wouldn’t have witnessed that intense finish to the match with Vini’s red card in the 79th. Spanish refereeing needs to be thoroughly reviewed.
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