Atletico Madrid have been left furious by rumours over Julian Alvarez's future, launching a stunning social media meltdown after claims that Barcelona are working to sign the Argentine forward. The 26-year-old has been linked with an exit from the Metropolitano over the past few months, with the Catalan giants and Premier League champions Arsenal among those linked. Reports in Spain have even suggested that Barcelona have lodged an opening offer of €100m.
Atletico's Social Media Tirade
Amid those reports, Atleti shared an array of bizarre posts on X. They began: 'In a few minutes, we will publish a statement about a relevant matter that is generating numerous pieces of disinformation.' Then, alongside a mocked-up image of Barcelona star Lamine Yamal in an Atletico Madrid shirt, they wrote: 'HERE WE GO! We have sent a fax to Barcelona 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.'
The Spanish side then followed that up with a similar post involving Pedri with the caption: '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 final post was centred around Raphinha and read: 'HERE WE GO! And to complete the 3x1, 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.'
Official Denial and Accusations
Atletico Madrid continued: '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. No, Atlético 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 culé 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.'
Meanwhile, a prior statement hit out on the reports that Alvarez could be closing in on a move to the Camp Nou as 'just another lie.'
Captain Koke's Verdict
Atleti captain Koke also offered his verdict. Speaking to Marca, he said: 'I've been in Menorca with my phone off, with my wife, after a very intense year with many matches and many stories, and I've disconnected from my phone. I don't know about any meetings; the only thing I know is that Julian is an Atletico Madrid player, he has a contract until 2030 and a release clause of many millions. That's all I can tell you. Julian, as I told you before, he's an Atletico Madrid player. He's a lad who's giving his all; he's been at the club for two years. Ever since he arrived, everyone's been trying to sell him to Barcelona, and to the other side, and to the other side. And right now, he's an Atletico player until he comes out and says otherwise.'
