Real Madrid have confirmed they have tabled a £130million bid for Julian Alvarez – but that it was rejected.
Former Manchester City forward Alvarez has been highly sought after this summer, with Arsenal and Barcelona also chasing the Atletico Madrid striker.
The bid also comes after Madrid president Florentino Perez – who retained his position until at least 2030 after an election at the weekend – confirmed he would make a huge bid for a ‘Galatico’ if he won the vote.
And he has kept his word, with Madrid releasing an official statement surrounding the bid on Tuesday evening.
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 Álvarez.
‘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.’
Real Madrid have tabled a £130million offer for Arsenal target Julian Alvarez (pictured)
The forward is the identity of the ‘Galatico’ promised by newly-reelected president Florentino Perez (right)
Arsenal have been monitoring the forward, while Barcelona received backlash from their Spanish counterparts for their apparent approach.
At the end of May, Atletico shared a series of bizarre social media posts accusing Barca of a ‘smear campaign’ against them.
And, on Tuesday, they were at it again with Real as they hit back at the statement.
‘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.
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)”.’
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.
Atletico, who have rejected the bid, had formerly mocked Barcelona for their apparent approach for the forward
‘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.’
Madrid are looking to bounce back from a poor season that saw them lose out on the LaLiga title to Barcelona and also exit the Champions League early.
If he were to move, Alvarez, who is believed to have told Atletico he wishes to leave, would join an attack already featuring the likes of Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham.
