The situation with Julián Álvarez is complicated: the Argentinian star reportedly wants to play for Barcelona next season, and according to some sources, the Catalan club has offered 100 million euros for the player, who was bought by Atlético de Madrid from Manchester City only two years ago. But Atleti insists that he is not for sale, denying having received an offer from Barcelona... and taunting Barça on social media.
Fabrizio Romano reported on Friday that Barça had offered to pay 100 million euros for Álvaraz, without add-ons or other potential players offered in exchange for Álvarez. But according to AS and Mundo Deportivo, Atleti has said that it's "yet another lie" from Barcelona and, if an offer were to come, it wouldn't be considered because the player is not for sale.
The situation even reached social media, and on Friday afternoon Atlético de Madrid posted a photoshop of Lamine Yamal wearing an Atleti jersey, jokingly saying they have sent Barcelona an "offer" for the player: "4 tickets for tomorrow's Bad Bunny concert, an annual subscription to ABC, and a bag of sunflower seeds. We eagerly await the response to prepare the 'announce'".
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A second post showed Pedri with a different offer: "we've run out of tickets for tomorrow's concert, so we improve the previous proposal with 6 for the one on Sunday".
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Where will Julián Álvarez play next season?
Certainly, if Atleti ends up selling the player to Barcelona, those tweets will age poorly... But there have been reports of other clubs, like PSG, offering even more: 120 million euros and two other players for Álvarez, according to El Chiringuito.
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Atleti counts on him for the sporting plans for 2026/27, but it has been reported that Álvarez wants to leave Atleti, hoping to play for Barcelona, which would put him at odds with the Atleti fans if he were to stay and continue playing for the Simeone club. At this point, it's anybody's guess what will happen with him...
On Friday, Julián Álvarez was called-up for the World Cup 2026 squad with Argentina, in what will be Leo Messi's sixth World Cup.