Atlético Madrid accused Barcelona of a “relentless smear campaign” in their pursuit of forward Julián Álvarez, claiming the LaLiga giants are responsible for “calculated leaks, fake news and constant disrespect” in an extraordinary series of social media posts.
ESPN reported Thursday that Barça were hopeful of signing Álvarez, 26, after meeting with the Argentina international’s representatives and being told that the player favored joining them over alternatives such as Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal.
On Friday, Atlético posted a trio of tongue-in-cheek offers for Barça stars Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Raphinha on X and Instagram after Barcelona were widely reported to have submitted a bid for Álvarez.
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Earlier, club sources told ESPN that they had not received any such offer and expressed their unhappiness at the Catalan team’s tactics.
A deal for Álvarez would not be straightforward given that the forward has a contract at Atlético until 2030 and a €500 million ($582 million) release clause.
“Over the past few months, we’ve been subjected to a relentless smear campaign against one of our players,” Atlético posted on X. “Calculated leaks, fake news, constant disrespect, the culé version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, phone calls before head-to-head clashes.”
Atlético then referenced an inquiry into €7 million of payments made by Barça to former referees’ committee vice president José María Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018,
“But of course, it would never occur to us either to have the vice president of referees on the payroll or to rely on political favours to register players. Respect and values,” the team added.
Before that statement, in a series of posts, the club shared joke offers for three of Barça’s biggest stars: wingers Yamal and Raphinha and midfielder Pedri.
“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 Saturday.
Minutes later, Atlético published a similar post, showing an image of Pedri, also in an Atlético shirt.
“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 erroneously appeared to name both as Atlético players when the two clubs met in the Copa del Rey.
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, as the two clubs were involved in the acrimonious transfer of Antoine Griezmann to Barça in 2019.
Information from ESPN’s Rodrigo Faez was used in this report.
