Julian Alvarez is not backing down. Two competing versions of the same weekend have left Atletico Madrid’s transfer saga more tangled than ever, 48 hours before Diego Simeone’s side start their LaLiga campaign at home to Malaga.
One report out of Spain had the 26-year-old admitting a “mistake” to teammates and settling in for three more years at the club. The next account, out of ESPN Argentina, knocked the entire apology narrative down.
“Julián Álvarez has not apologised to anyone at Atléti and continues to want an exit from Atlético Madrid, considering his time at the club to be over,” the broadcaster reported.
Instead of an apology, his representatives are pushing for a face-to-face with chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin. When they asked for that meeting the previous week after more than three hours of talks in Madrid, Atletico’s leadership declined to attend.
The €100m bid Atletico wouldn’t open
Barcelona put €100 million on the table earlier in the summer. Atletico refused to enter negotiations, a block the striker’s camp reads as a broken promise from Gil Marin, who is said to have assured him back in February that a serious offer would be facilitated.
Selling to a direct LaLiga rival was always going to be a hard sell in Madrid, and the position hardened with Alexander Sorloth picking up a preseason injury that left Simeone thin at centre-forward. Arsenal and PSG have looked. Alvarez wants Barcelona.
The whole affair started at the World Cup, when Alvarez told reporters that “the best thing for everyone is a transfer” and said he wanted to fulfil his dream. That single sentence detonated a summer that has still not settled.
Simeone: ‘The entity took a decision’
The head coach and his No. 9 met one-on-one at Atletico’s Majadahonda facility before the rest of the squad returned. The exchange was described as cordial. Simeone told his striker the call belonged to the club, and made clear he was still counting on him for the season.
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“The situation is very clear, the entity took a decision that Miguel Angel explained very well,” Simeone said.
For Alvarez, that was not the message he came for. The demand for a formal meeting with Gil Marin followed within days. Simeone, for his part, signed an extension keeping him in the dugout until 2027, removing at least one variable from a summer full of them.
Alvarez is expected to be available for Wednesday’s opener against Malaga at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, a matchday-one fixture brought forward to clear the stadium for three The Weeknd concerts at the end of August. Whether he starts is a call for Simeone. What he wants, a room with the CEO and an exit before the window shuts, is now on the record.
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