Atlético Madrid have trolled Barcelona over their interest in forward Julián Álvarez by posting a trio of tongue-in-cheek offers for Barça stars Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Raphinha on social media.
ESPN reported on Thursday that Barça were hopeful of signing Álvarez, after meeting with the Argentina international’s representatives and being told that the player favoured joining them over alternatives like Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.
However a move for Álvarez was not expected to be straightforward, given that the forward has a contract at Atlético until 2030, and a €500 million ($584m) release clause.
Atlético sources told ESPN on Friday that they had not received any formal offer from Barcelona for Álvarez, and expressed their unhappiness at the Catalan club’s pursuit.
In a series of posts on X later on Friday, the club shared joke offers for three of Barça’s biggest stars: wingers Yamal and Raphinha and midfielder Pedri.
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“HERE WE GO! We’ve sent a fax to Barcelona with our transfer offer,” the club said, alongside an image of Yamal in an Atletico shirt.
“Four tickets for tomorrow’s Bad Bunny concert, an annual subscription to [Spanish newspaper] ABC, and a bag of sunflower seeds. We eagerly await your response to prepare the ‘announce’.”
Singer Bad Bunny is due to play the first of 10 nights at Atlético’s Metropolitano stadium on Saturday.
Minutes later, Atlético published a similar post, with an image of Pedri, also in an Atlético shirt.
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“For this second offer we’ve had a problem, we’ve run out of tickets for tomorrow’s concert,” the club said on X. “So we improve the previous proposal with six for the one on Sunday.”
A third post featured Brazil international Raphinha.
“To complete the 3×1, we’ve gotten carried away,” the club said. “We’re going all in: 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.”
“Tom Ford’ and ‘Smith’ are references to a gaffe from Atlético president Enrique Cerezo earlier this season, when he seemingly named both as Atlético players when the two clubs met in the Copa del Rey.
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The club posted another line on the same images on Instagram saying: “We live in an era where reality can be altered. Don’t believe everything you see, especially if it’s related to Barça.”
Álvarez scored 10 goals in Atletico’s run to the Champions League semifinals this season, as well as eight in LaLiga.
It’s not the first time Atlético and Barcelona have clashed over a move for a superstar player, with both clubs being involved in the acrimonious transfer of Antoine Griezmann to Barça in 2019.
Information from Rodrigo Faez was used in this report.
