- Atletico Madrid and Argentina striker Julian Alvarez is believed to be FC Barcelona’s chosen Robert Lewandowski successor.
- Former Barça Director of Football Mateu Alemany claimed that the World Cup winner is “staying with us” ahead of Atleti’s Saturday La Liga win over Getafe.
- Alvarez, signed from Manchester City in 2024, has been rated as high as €200 million.
Ex-FC Barcelona Director of Football Mateu Alemany dealt a blow to the Catalans’ hopes of signing star striker Julian Alvarez this summer by saying “he’s staying with us” on Saturday evening in Spain, in quotes carried by SPORT yet made on Movistar.
“As happened with Antoine [Griezmann], he has a contract with us and he will be with us,” Alemany said, when asked about the World Cup winner’s potential switch to Catalonia.
In the summer of 2018, Griezmann almost joined Barca but then announced his decision to stay at the Metropolitano via a Gerard Pique-produced short documentary.
The following year, however, he finally made the move once a Blaugrana board led by former president Josep Bartomeu triggered the Frenchman’s €120 million release clause.
With Griezmann unable to gel with Lionel Messi, the deal turned out to be a flop and the forward eventually returned to the Spanish capital ostracised and with his tail between his legs in 2021. In recent years, though, he has yet again become a club legend.
Atletico has long term plans for FC Barcelona target Alvarez
With Alvarez boasting a contract until 2030, Alemany stated that there are long plans for the target man, who is back to performing at a top level after a slump earlier this season.
“Julian clearly said that he is very happy at Atletico and everything he says is interpreted in a different way. I don’t see any news with Julian,” Alemany said.
“There is no issue, another thing is that issues are sought where there are none. I subscribe to what the coach said yesterday. The news is that he is putting in extraordinary performances … We hope that he will continue much longer and even that he will extend.”
Alemany continues to be a thorn in Joan Laporta’s side
Alemany’s remarks saw him again needling Joan Laporta, who on Sunday goes to the polls looking to beat Victor Font at the ballot box and be rewarded a second five-year term as FC Barcelona president by its soci members.
Midweek, in another Movistar interview, this time ahead of Atletico taking to the pitch to hammer Tottenham Hotspur 5-2 thanks to an Alvarez brace, Alemany said that Xavi’s claims Messi had agreed to return to the Spotify Camp Nou only for the 2023 free transfer to be torpedoed by Laporta were true.
“As Xavi has said and he is right, they told us that they had him,” Alemany confirmed. Before that, to La Vanguardia, Xavi claimed that “Messi had been signed, but Laporta backed out because he didn’t want a war with him.”
Xavi’s comments were seen as a way of supporting Font where he didn’t come out and endorse him before Laporta won the presidential election against the businessman in 2021.
It now remains to be seen who prevails on Sunday March 15th via the vote, when Barça also take on Sevilla in the Spotify Camp Nou.
Alvarez remains the unattainable, unaffordable White Whale for FC Barcelona
While Alvarez clearly isn’t for sale, at least not publicly, a financial reality check is in order for Laporta or Font, irrespective of who wins the election.
Font similarly has eyes for Alvarez’s former Manchester City teammate Erling Haaland, and it seems unlikely he’d go for anything less than the reported €200 million Alvarez has been rated at by Atleti according to Cadena SER.
Still recovering from the economic crisis of 2020 on Bartomeu’s watch, which almost bankrupted them as a club, Barça can’t sit at the big boys’ table making the marquee signings of old as seen with misfits such as Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.
Continuing to look in-house at La Masia is the best solution, although it is hardly known for producing strikers. Above all, this means the scouting department must get busy and work the kind of magic it did when picking up Pedri from Las Palmas for a pittance, or look for seasoned professionals at cut rates.
