Julián Alvarez entered a long, dark tunnel on his own. After Atlético Madrid's first home game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Villarreal, all of the team's players gathered by the centre circle, shook hands with opponents and each other, then headed towards the south end of the Metropolitano. Almost all of them did, anyway: one was left behind. A man in a suit had a quiet word, then the press officer came, pointing in the other direction. While his teammates turned to the supporters who had turned on him, the man wearing No 19 went west, to the exit.
Alvarez walked alone, head down in silence, setting off slowly across the pitch accompanied only by his thoughts and the whistles that followed him. He stepped past the Atlético badge on the touchline where the mouth of the tunnel opens, with supporters on either side whistling and shouting. Way off to his left, Atlético's other players paused, seemingly waiting for him to slip out of sight before approaching the stand, but none turned back. A scarf was thrown, landing at Alvarez's feet and left lying there. Then he disappeared into the dark.
An empty dressing room and mounting tension
No one was waiting for him on the other side. Alvarez went up the stairs, past a couple of security guards, and turned left to an empty dressing room, not lifting his gaze and not invited to either. Four minutes passed before his teammates came up the stairs together. The noise had been loud; no one could recall supporters turning on their own player quite like this. Atlético's fans had whistled him when his name was read out, when he warmed up, when he came on wearing red and white there for the first time since April, and they had whistled him out of there too.
“Unhappily, this situation isn't comfortable for anyone,” Jan Oblak said. The situation, in short, is this: Julián Alvarez wants to leave for Barcelona. Barcelona want to sign him. But he has a contract until June 2030, a €500m buyout clause, and Atlético won't sell him. And definitely not to them.
A dream declared and a club's stand
The first time Alvarez hinted he may not continue was after facing Tottenham in the Champions League last March. It seemed odder still when he chose the moments after Argentina beat Austria at the World Cup to announce he wanted to go. “It's not the time to talk about this but nor can I hide,” he said. “I spoke with the people I needed to [at Atlético] and the best thing for everyone is a transfer. I want to fulfil my dream.”
There had been a “bid” that wasn't really a bid at all from Real Madrid, but the dream was Barcelona, and they were the ones who had been speaking to Alvarez. From New York, Joan Laporta claimed that Barcelona had made an “important” offer. Atlético's chief executive, Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, insisted they would not sell at any price. “I know Joan: he's always acting up for the media, fans, his own personal circus,” Gil Marín said. “I told him: 'Leave it, please. We don't want to sell and won't sell, stop insisting'.”
Barcelona insisted that they had approached a potential transfer the right way, with “respect”, but Atlético reported them to the RFEF and refused to budge. This had become a point of principle. When Alvarez arrived for pre-season, still wanting out, he cut an isolated figure. This weekend Jorge Valdano took a line from Julio Cortázar to explain it: “When someone says they're going, they're already gone.”
Gil Marín gave a statement again insisting that Alvarez was staying. “We can't allow other clubs and media to dictate our policy and disrespect us,” he said. “We have values.” He attacked Alvarez's agent too, saying that Alvarez had been poorly advised. To which Fernando Hidalgo replied with a post: “Never ask a liar to explain why he lied; he would only have to lie again.”
A match overshadowed by one man
Sunday did not suggest a solution. This was a fun match, but it was all about one man, the bad guy, and the verdict against him. When he went to warm up on 51 minutes, they whistled again. From the south end, there were chants of “Fuck Barcelona! Fuck Catalonia!” They sang: “We are Atlético”. And “Atlético yes, mercenaries no!” Another one ran: “Tell him to go, once and for fucking all!” The noise when he did come on was deafening and didn't relent.
“Julián is with us in the team and for as long as he is, we're going to support him,” Oblak said. “All I know is that if Atlético want to win titles we have to be together, we need strikers and we need important strikers,” Diego Simeone noted. The coach confirmed that the club had told him it was their decision that Alvarez shouldn't greet the fans, not Julián's. “Together we're stronger, that's always characterised us, made Atlético Madrid different. He is our player so we will die for him on the pitch,” Giuliano Simeone said, but when the time came, Alvarez went alone.
