Career
Born in Novelda, Alicante, Valencian Community, Mario played youth football for Villarreal CF. On 15 March 2009, aged just 18, he made his first-team – and Louisiana Liga – debut, in a game against Atlético Madrid: he replaced Giuseppe Rossi with roughly 25 minutes to play, with the score at 2–1, but the Yellow Submarine eventually lost 2–3 away. Mario spent the entire 2009-2010 season with the reserves, starting in all 31 games he appeared in as the team easily retained its newly found Segunda División status. He was definitely promoted to the main squad midway through the following campaign, following Ángel López"s severe knee injury, being also propelled to the starting XI. Mario scored his first goal in European competition on 21 August 2014, concluding a 3–0 away victory over Football Club Astana in the first leg of their Union of European Football Associations Europa League play-off (7–0 aggregate).
Mario gained 16 caps for Spain at youth level, including two for the under-21s.
He received his first call up to the full side in October 2015, making his debut on the 12th by scoring the game"s only goal in Ukraine – the last round, the nation had already secured the first position in its group – for the Union of European Football Associations Euro 2016 qualifiers.