Julián Álvarez has returned to Atlético de Madrid from his break after playing in the World Cup final, and it will be an awkward reunion, after the player publicly said two months ago, while playing World Cup, that he wanted to leave Atleti, hoping to "fulfil his dream" of playing at FC Barcelona.
As of right now, there are no reports that Atleti changed their mind, insisting that they will not sell the player, who has a valid contract with the club and an unreachable €500 million release clause.
In fact, Atlético de Madrid reported Barcelona to FIFA for negotiating with the player, who was not on the market, behind their backs, in one of the melodramas of the summer that will likely end with Álvarez resigning himself to playing with Atleti one more year.
Now, it remains to be seen if Álvarez will try again to convince the Atleti bosses to let him go, or instead will try to make amends and re-join the rest of the staff and repair the fragile relationship with the club and teammates. It has been reported that Álvarez will not meet again with coach Diego Pablo Simeone until Wednesday, as he and the players that went to South Korea for a 3-1 friendly loss to Manchester City were given two free days.
