Atletico fires back strongly at Real Madrid over Julian Alvarez bid, while Barcelona gets called out too
Atletico Madrid has publicly responded to Real Madrid by confirming they turned down a €150 million offer for Julián Álvarez.
After a lot of rumors, Álvarez was finally linked as the secret transfer target of Florentino Pérez.
Álvarez, who is currently getting ready for the World Cup with Argentina, has caught the eye of several top Champions League clubs like Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, and Barcelona. Atletico rejected Barcelona’s €100 million (£86.3 million) bid for him just last week.
In a surprising move, and true to a promise Pérez made before his re-election as Real Madrid’s president, Real made a club-record €150 million (£129.4 million) bid for Atlético’s second-most expensive player ever, Julián Álvarez.
But according to an official statement from Real Madrid, Atletico turned down the offer.
The statement said: “Real Madrid C.F. announces that, after a board meeting today, it made a €150 million offer to Atlético Madrid for the player Julián Álvarez. After reviewing the offer, Atlético thanked us for the proposal but rejected it, referring to the player’s release clause.”
However, the story didn’t end there. Atlético quickly replied on their official X account with a funny and slightly cheeky message.
They first quoted Real’s statement with five laughing-crying emojis, then added some “clarifications”:
1. Real left out the part where the Pope said he’s an Atleti fan too.
2. You might have mixed up politeness with gratitude—just to be clear, we’re not thanking you for anything.
3. We didn’t even look at or consider any offer for Julián.
4. How could we not get along when you make us laugh even more than Barcelona?
In a follow-up tweet, Atlético joked: “P.S. Since you’re new president’s our ‘friend,’ maybe you’ll stop ‘stealing’ players from our Academy. Thanks a lot, Real Madrid!”
People thought Álvarez’s contract had a huge €500 million (£431.3 million) release clause. But GIVEMESPORT’s Ben Jacobs shared that the deal includes special terms for some Champions League clubs like Barcelona, letting them sign Álvarez for around €150 million (£129.4 million), which makes a transfer much easier.
Álvarez has scored 49 goals and made 17 assists in 106 games for Diego Simeone’s team and is contracted with Atlético until 2030.