{"id":748412,"date":"2026-08-24T17:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748412\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:54:09","slug":"julian-alvarez-walks-alone-at-atletico-in-transfer-saga-with-no-end-and-no-winners-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748412\/","title":{"rendered":"Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez walks alone at Atl\u00e9tico in transfer saga with no end \u2013 and no winners | La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez entered a long, dark tunnel on his own. \u201cWe\u2019re stronger together,\u201d Giuliano Simeone said but that wasn\u2019t the way it went. At the end of their first home game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Villarreal, all of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2019s players gathered by the centre circle, shook hands with their opponents and each other, then headed towards the south end of the Metropolitano. Almost all of them did, anyway: one was left behind<\/a>. Somebody in a suit had a quiet word then the press officer came, pointing in the other direction. So, while his teammates turned to the supporters who had turned on him, the man wearing No 19 went west, to the exit.<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvarez walked alone. Head down in silence, as he had been all afternoon and beyond, he set off slowly across the pitch accompanied only by his thoughts and the whistles that followed him. Not offered a hand to shake or a nod of acknowledgment, he stepped past the Atl\u00e9tico badge on the touchline where the mouth of the tunnel opens. Either side, supporters hung over the void, whistling and shouting. Way off to his left, Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s other players paused, seemingly waiting for him to slip out of sight before approaching the stand, but none turned back. A scarf was thrown, landing at \u00c1lvarez\u2019s feet and left lying there. And then he disappeared into the dark, a portrait of the place he is in.<\/p>\n

No one was waiting for him on the other side. \u00c1lvarez went up the stairs, past a couple of security guards and turned left to an empty dressing room, not lifting his gaze and not invited to either. Four minutes would pass before his teammates came up the stairs together. But at least it was quiet now, for a little while. The noise had been loud; no one could recall supporters turning on their own player quite like this. Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s fans, still his fans, had whistled him when his name was read out, whistled him when he had warmed up, whistled him when he came on wearing red and white there for the first time since April and since he declared it his \u201cdream\u201d to leave, and they had whistled him out of there too, for good.<\/p>\n

Good? \u201cUnhappily, this situation isn\u2019t comfortable for anyone,\u201d Jan Oblak said, and amid the damage done, the mutual accusations, the hurt pride and spited faces, nor is it easy to see a solution. The situation, in short, is this: Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez wants to leave for Barcelona<\/a>. Barcelona want to sign him. But he has a contract until June 2030, a \u20ac500m buyout clause, and Atl\u00e9tico won\u2019t sell him. And definitely not to them. And so, here they are. Stuck.<\/p>\n

Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez trudges off the pitch alone as his Atl\u00e9tico Madrid teammates applaud the fans. Photograph: Manu Reino\/DeFodi Images\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The first time \u00c1lvarez hinted he may not continue was after facing Tottenham in the Champions League last March. The timing seemed odd then: it hadn\u2019t been an easy season, the feeling that something was wrong growing and about to be confirmed, but he had just scored twice and Atl\u00e9tico had won 5-2<\/a>. It seemed odder still when he chose the moments after Argentina beat Austria at the World Cup to announce he wanted to go<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not the time to talk about this but nor can I hide,\u201d he said. \u201cI spoke with the people I needed to [at Atl\u00e9tico] and the best thing for everyone is a transfer. I want to fulfil my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

There had been a \u201cbid\u201d<\/a> that wasn\u2019t really a bid at all from Real Madrid but the dream was Barcelona and they were the ones who had been speaking to \u00c1lvarez, planning how to make it happen. Which was one of the reasons why Atl\u00e9tico were so determined it wouldn\u2019t, deciding to take a stand instead, make this a cause. This was not about him wanting to go, or not only, but about the way it had been done.<\/p>\n

From New York, Joan Laporta claimed that Barcelona had made an \u201cimportant\u201d offer. \u201cIf Atl\u00e9tico are prepared to accept, fantastic,\u201d he said, but they weren\u2019t and they didn\u2019t think much of the offer either. Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s chief executive, Miguel \u00c1ngel Gil Mar\u00edn, insisted they would not sell at any price: they had told \u00c1lvarez, his agent and Barcelona that. \u201cI know Joan: he\u2019s always acting up for the media, fans, his own personal circus,\u201d Gil Mar\u00edn said. \u201cI told him: \u2018Leave it, please. We don\u2019t want to sell and won\u2019t sell, stop insisting\u2019. He loves to play the part but he knows perfectly well that Juli\u00e1n won\u2019t play for Barcelona next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barcelona insisted that they had approached a potential transfer the right way, with \u201crespect\u201d, but Atl\u00e9tico reported them to the RFEF (Spanish Football Federation) and refused to budge, a statement made, territory defended. This had become a point of principle, examples to be made of them. The noise though refused to go away. When \u00c1lvarez arrived for pre-season, still wanting out, he cut an isolated figure. If every silence and furrowed brow was analysed to death, it was true that there was an absence about him. This weekend Jorge Valdano took a line from Julio Cort\u00e1zar to explain it: \u201cWhen someone says they\u2019re going, they\u2019re already gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if they\u2019re not going. While Atl\u00e9tico quietly investigated other options, Gil Mar\u00edn gave a statement again insisting that \u00c1lvarez was staying. \u201cWe can\u2019t allow other clubs and media to dictate our policy and disrespect us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have values.\u201d He attacked \u00c1lvarez\u2019s agent too, saying that Alvarez had been poorly advised. To which Fernando Hidalgo \u2013 whose version has Atl\u00e9tico promising that if \u00c1lvarez publicly said he wanted to go, taking responsibility, they would allow him to \u2013 replied with a post: \u201cNever ask a liar to explain why he lied; he would only have to lie again.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the head coach, watching his superiors take the lead, he was ready to put \u00c1lvarez back in the team. \u201cYou can\u2019t be clearer than the club\u2019s been. It\u2019s like when the judge says: \u2018Denied!\u2019\u201d Diego Simeone said. As if it was that simple, the case so easily dismissed. While Atl\u00e9tico said they would \u201clook after\u201d him, while accusing Barcelona and Hidalgo lifted some blame from his shoulders, \u00c1lvarez\u2019s return instead underlined that coming back from this might be even harder than anticipated, redemption more of a reach than imagined.<\/p>\n

Diego Simeone left Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez (bottom right) on the bench to start with. Photograph: Sheng Cheng\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Sunday did not suggest a solution, a moment for the healing to start. Instead, it felt unsustainable, the case eclipsing all else, pressure building to find a proper conclusion. This was a fun match, but it was all about one man, the bad guy, and the verdict against him \u2013 and that affects everyone, maybe no winners any more. After the game there was a moment when, hands raised in front of him, the press officer asked journalists if there were any more questions, pausing to add \u2026 about the game \u2026 and the hands went down again. Before it, every photographer gathered in front of the bench as \u00c1lvarez took up his place to the left of Juan Musso and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Gimenez, staring at the floor, the only movement his clenching jaw, while 60,000 people whistled his name. That, it turned out, was just the beginning.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideLa Liga resultsShow<\/p>\n

Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Alav\u00e9s, Real Betis 1-0 Real Sociedad, Espanyol 1-2 Real Madrid, Valencia 0-0 Celta Vigo, Athletic Club 1-3 Sevilla, Elche 0-5 Barcelona, Getafe 1-0 Racing de Santander, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid 2-2 Villarreal<\/p>\n

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When he went to warm up on 51 minutes, they whistled again. From the south end, there were chants of \u201cFuck Barcelona! Fuck Catalonia!\u201d They sang: \u201cWe are Atl\u00e9tico\u201d. And \u201cAtl\u00e9tico yes, mercenaries no!\u201d Another one ran: \u201cTell him to go, once and for fucking all!\u201d (To which \u00c1lvarez might have thought: yeah, that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do). As Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s players came to the touchline after their first goal, the fitness coach said \u00c1lvarez was about to go on. \u201cCareful, eh,\u201d Marc Pubill replied. The noise when he did was deafening and didn\u2019t relent. There weren\u2019t many touches but with every one the angry volume rose, the rejection not receding all the way to the final whistle, which was not the final whistle at all: that too was for \u00c1lvarez. With eight days left in the window, it could still have been a good riddance, but \u2026 if it\u2019s not?<\/p>\n

\u201cJuli\u00e1n is with us in the team and for as long as he is, we\u2019re going to support him,\u201d Oblak said. \u201cAll I know is that if Atl\u00e9tico want to win titles we have to be together, we need strikers and we need important strikers,\u201d Simeone noted, admitting he had apologised to Ademola Lookman for making him play there in the absence of \u00c1lvarez and the injured Alex S\u00f8rloth. They do have strikers, the coach said the second time he turned to that line, but they would have to \u201ctake care\u201d of them, the coach confirming that the club had told him it was their decision that he shouldn\u2019t greet the fans, not Juli\u00e1n\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Yet if it had been designed to protect \u00c1lvarez and if this statement had too, absolving him of having chosen to turn his back on them, it also exposed him. Leaving first without the others, none joining him, served as an expression of his isolation, his othering, of how broken the situation had become. \u201cTogether we\u2019re stronger, that\u2019s always characterised us, made Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> different. He is our player so we will die for him on the pitch,\u201d Giuliano Simeone said, but when the time came, \u00c1lvarez went alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez entered a long, dark tunnel on his own. \u201cWe\u2019re stronger together,\u201d Giuliano Simeone said but that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-748412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}