Arsenal and Barcelona target Julian Alvarez has admitted he is eager to leave Atletico Madrid this summer in pursuit of what he described as a “dream” transfer.
The Atletico Madrid forward is currently away with Argentina at the World Cup, but speculation over his club future continues to intensify, with Arsenal, Barcelona and Real Madrid all making clear their interest in signing him during the summer window.
Barcelona have already seen an £85million offer for Alvarez turned down, prompting Atletico to take a swipe at the Spanish champions on social media after rejecting the bid.
“This isn’t the time to talk about this, but I can’t hide either,” Alvarez told reporters. “I try to be an honest person.
“I spoke with the people at Atletico Madrid, and I think the best thing for everyone is a transfer. I want to fulfill my dream.”
Julian Alvarez has asked Atletico Madrid to allow him to pursue his “dream” move to Barcelona
The 26-year-old is understood to view Barcelona as his preferred destination, although strained relations between the two clubs could complicate any potential deal.
Atletico are reportedly considering legal action against Barcelona over their approach for Alvarez.
They have told Diario AS: ‘There is no amount of money for which Barca can buy Julian Alvarez. He will not be transferred to Barcelona.
‘Either they pay the release clause for €500m (£431.2m) or there is no deal.’
A move could cause further issues for Marcus Rashford, who saw Anthony Gordon join Barcelona ahead of him earlier this month.
Arsenal could instead look to sign Rashford, and Tottenham also hold an interest. But there have not yet been any talks, and the England winger wants Champions League football.
At the end of May, Atletico shared a series of bizarre social media posts accusing Barca of a ‘smear campaign’ against them.
The first post aimed at Barcelona, meanwhile, showed Barca’s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal wearing an Atletico kit in an edited image. The caption read: ‘HERE WE GO! We have sent a fax to @FCBarcelona_es with our transfer offer: 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 (sic)”.’
Atletico have mocked Barcelona and Real Madrid for their apparent approaches for the forward
A second post, shared just a minute later, featured the same theme, but this time with midfielder Pedri. The caption read: ‘HERE WE GO! For this second offer we’ve had a problem, we’ve run out of tickets for tomorrow’s concert, so we improve the previous proposal with 6 for the one on Sunday.’
The third, which included an edited photo of Raphinha, read: ‘HERE WE GO! And to complete the 3×1, we’ve gotten all carried away and we’re going to throw the little house out the window: the player arrives on loan for a season and in exchange we loan out Tom Ford and Smith with no option to buy. An offer impossible to refuse.’
Alvarez, who has scored 49 goals in 106 matches for Atletico, reportedly believes Barcelona will offer him a better chance of silverware than Arsenal and Atletico. There have been no reports on his thoughts of a potential move to Madrid.
The 26-year-old currently has four years left to run on his contract, which contains a €500m (£430m) release clause – other reports have suggested that Atletico would in fact sell for £130m. That, though, has turned out to be false.
Alvarez’s agent Fernando Hidalgo increased speculation over his client’s possible move to Barcelona after sharing a post on social media of him travelling into the city.
A further post from Atletico read: ‘Finally, we want to take this opportunity to categorically deny that we have made an offer to the sporting director of FC Barcelona to join our scouting team in the Brazilian market,’ in reference to Deco.
They continued: ‘No, Atletico de Madrid would never do something like that. However, in recent months, we’ve been suffering a smear campaign against one of our players. Leaked information with ulterior motives, “fake news”, constant disrespect, the cule version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, calls before direct matchups.
‘But of course, it wouldn’t occur to us either to have the referees’ vice president on our payroll or to resort to political favors to register players. RESPECT and VALUES.’
Alvarez is also a target for Arsenal, but favours a move to Barcelona in Spain
After Florentino Perez won Madrid’s presidential election earlier this month, meanwhile, Madrid announced they had seen a £130m bid for Alvarez rejected.
The statement read: ‘Real Madrid CF announces that, following today’s Board of Directors meeting, it has made an offer of 150 million euros to Club Atletico de Madrid for the federative rights of the player Julian Alvarez.
‘After studying and evaluating it, Atletico de Madrid has thanked the club for the offer, made within the framework of the good relations existing between both clubs, and has rejected it, referring to the player’s release clause.’
Atletico hit back, posting: ‘Official statement with our clarifications regarding the official statement from our neighbors, @realmadrid,’ they posted on X.
‘1. Your video of the Pope saying he was also an Atletico fan was cut short (in reference to the Pope visiting Real Madrid on Sunday). 2. You may have mistaken politeness for gratitude, but just to be clear: we are not thanking you for anything. 3. We are neither considering nor evaluating any offers for Julian.
‘4. How could we not get along, when you make us laugh even more than Barcelona.’
They added in a separate post: ‘P.S. Taking advantage of the good relationship with your new president, let’s see if you stop ‘stealing’ players from our Academy. Thanks a lot, @realmadrid!’
They had previously quoted the Madrid post with a series of laughing faces.
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