Marca and Mundo Deportivo on Monday morning reported that Julián Alvarez has been in touch with Atlético de Madrid as he begins to follow the club’s preseason training plan before he reintegrates into the group next week.
Alvarez has been on holiday in Ibiza since Argentina’s loss to Spain in last month’s FIFA World Cup final, but one week before he is due back at Atlético’s Cerro del Espino training complex, he is “now working with Atlético in mind” and the club expects him to return on Aug. 10 “as
expected.”
In recent days especially, the media cabal tied to FC Barcelona has propagated the theory that Alvarez would declare himself in rebellion and refuse to turn up at Majadahonda in order to force his move to the Spanish champions. MD’s Javi Gómara reports that “nothing can be completely ruled out” given the way in which Alvarez has been advised this summer; Atlético have insisted for months that the 26-year-old would not get his “dream” move to Barcelona, and club CEO Miguel Ángel Gil said before the World Cup final that Barça could not sign him even for €200 million.
It seems for the moment that sanity has won out, and Alvarez will return to training with no problems when he is due back next Monday.
Consistent with the club’s stance since the end of May, Marca’s Isaac Suárez reports that it is completely out of the question for Alvarez to join another Spanish club. But if a foreign club (i.e. Arsenal) were to lodge a competitive bid, then Atlético probably would consider it — especially if Alvarez again insists on leaving.
At this juncture though, it seems a foregone conclusion that Alvarez will play for Atlético in 2026/27, as was always the most likely outcome given the hostile relations between Atleti and Barça — not to mention the 26-year-old’s prohibitive price tag. To get Gil, Mateu Alemany and Apollo Sports Capital to the negotiating table would have taken a €150 million bid from outside the country, and Barça — as ever — submitted a single lowball offer of €100 million in hopes that Alvarez’s desire to leave would force a sale.
“A big club can’t afford to have unhappy players,” Barça president Joan Laporta said last month. Sure, man.
Alvarez again will have a central role in the Atlético attack this season. The mercurial forward faces an uphill battle to get an angry fanbase back on his side, and supporters will be seeing a lot of the him: Diego Simeone has made clear that Atleti will continue to build around Alvarez as long as he is at the club.
