Julian Alvarez booed by his own supporters, and two of Atletico Madrid’s most senior executives aiming their frustration squarely at Barcelona: Sunday afternoon in the Spanish capital delivered the sharpest hour yet in a saga that has dragged on all summer. The Argentine was named among Atletico’s substitutes for the visit of Villarreal, his first squad involvement of the new season, and the Metropolitano let him know exactly what it thought. Before that, president Enrique Cerezo had accused the Blaugrana of failing to behave as they normally would, and football director Mateu Alemany — a former Barca executive — had used the call-up itself as a statement of intent.
Here is what you will find below:
- What actually happened when Alvarez’s name was read out at the Metropolitano
- Cerezo’s charge that Barcelona “have not risen to the occasion”, and where he made it
- How Alemany framed the squad call-up on Spanish television
- What Atletico’s public version leaves out, according to earlier reporting
- Why none of it necessarily brings Barca a centre-forward before the deadline
Julian Alvarez booed: what happened at the Metropolitano
According to Mundo Deportivo‘s Roger Torello, the moment came before kick-off in Atletico’s matchday-two fixture against Villarreal. When the stadium announcer read Alvarez’s name over the public address system, a section of the Atletico support whistled loudly. Torello writes that the forward, sitting on the bench, looked down at the ground while it happened, and that he had already appeared notably serious during the warm-up.
The context matters. Alvarez had been left out of Atletico’s squad altogether for the 2-0 game against Malaga on Wednesday; Sunday was his first involvement of the campaign, and Diego Simeone named him on the bench rather than in the starting eleven. Mundo Deportivo note that at the World Cup the 26-year-old publicly said he wanted to leave Atletico to “fulfil my dream” — a dream he has made no secret is playing for Barca.
This was not the first sign of a fanbase losing patience. Mundo Deportivo reported on Friday that posters reading “Julian fuera” had appeared around Atletico’s training complex, alongside mocked-up road signs with his number 19 crossed out. A section of the support had already abused him during the Malaga game, which he did not attend.
Barca Universal make the obvious point from a Catalan perspective: keeping an unhappy player is one thing, keeping him while expecting his best football under open criticism from his own stands is another. In their reading, that is now Atletico’s problem rather than Barcelona’s.
Cerezo’s charge: ‘Barcelona have not risen to the occasion’
The president’s words
Before the game, Cerezo gave an interview to Spanish outlet El Desmarque that was carried across the Spanish and Catalan press. His starting position was familiar, and firm.
“I believe, and the only thing I can say after a rather complicated summer with the constant questions about Julian Alvarez, is that he is an Atletico de Madrid player, that he has always been an Atletico de Madrid player, and that we never intended to sell him.” He added: “He is an Atletico de Madrid player who is available to the coach whenever the coach wants him.”
Barca Universal report that Cerezo was then asked whether he felt Barcelona had disrespected Atletico at any point in the negotiations. He did not dodge it. In Barca Blaugranes‘ translation: “What I believe is that FC Barcelona has not risen to the occasion and has not done what it usually does in these cases.”
It is a pointed line, and a vague one. Cerezo did not specify what he thinks Barca should have done differently, nor which part of the process offended him. Barca Universal’s reading is that the two clubs’ relations are at an unusually low ebb given how many players have crossed from Catalonia to the Metropolitano over the years without incident.
Alemany doubles down
Roughly the same message arrived from Atletico’s football director, Mateu Alemany, a former Barcelona football director. Speaking to DAZN, and quoted by Mundo Deportivo, he treated the squad list as the argument in itself.
“It has been a recurring subject, but recurring for five or six months now. What matters is how things stand, and today we are with Julian called up, available to play. From there, I think that says it all and puts everyone in their place.”
“Puts everyone in their place” is a pointed line from a second Atletico executive inside a couple of hours. It also carries a certain irony: the man delivering it used to run Barca’s football department.
What Atletico’s public version leaves out
Taken at face value, Cerezo’s claim is that Alvarez was never for sale. Earlier reporting complicates that.
Atletico CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin told EFE on 21 August: “We didn’t accept the €100m offer, nor will we accept one of €150m or €200m.” That is the selling club’s own chief executive acknowledging on the record that a bid existed and was turned down, which is not quite the same thing as never having intended to sell. Mundo Deportivo have also reported that Atletico were prepared to sell Alvarez to Arsenal and that the player refused — reporting that, if accurate, narrows the position from “not for sale to anyone” to something closer to “not for sale to Barcelona”. We covered that when it broke, in Julian Alvarez Arsenal Offer Rejected as Atletico Keep Their Barcelona Veto.
The player’s camp has not stayed silent either. His agent, Fernando Hidalgo, posted on Instagram in the hours after Gil Marin’s interview: “Never ask a liar why he lied. To explain it, he’d have to lie again.” Mundo Deportivo presumed the target was Gil Marin; nobody confirmed it, and we reported it that way at the time in Julian Alvarez’s agent fires back at Atletico.
On the Barcelona side, columnist Xavier Bosch wrote in Mundo Deportivo that Joan Laporta acknowledged during the World Cup that Barca’s €100m offer expired on 31 July, and that Atletico were holding out for €150m. That is a columnist’s account rather than club-confirmed reporting, and it should be read as such — but it is at least a version of events in which Barca did make a serious, timed proposal.
Where this leaves Barcelona’s number nine
None of Sunday’s noise changes the practical position. Atletico hold the contract — Alvarez is tied to the club until 2030 — and Barca Universal argue that every additional public statement from the Madrid boardroom makes a climbdown harder rather than easier. Their blunt conclusion is that Deco and the sporting department must accept the file is effectively shut and move to alternatives.
The squad they are trying to fix is real enough. Robert Lewandowski left for Chicago Fire at the end of last season and Ferran Torres’s reported move to Paris Saint-Germain took away the other senior forward, leaving 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim as the only out-and-out centre-forward on the books. Deco said after the Joan Gamper win over Al Ahly that there would be a move in that position before the window closed. Since then the names have rotated: personal terms were reported with Lautaro Martinez, only for Inter to shut the door in public; Folarin Balogun and Serhou Guirassy have both surfaced as single-source links. Our running account of that search is here: Barcelona No 9 Search: Flick Confirms the Hunt.
Even inside Mundo Deportivo the reading is split. Lluis Canut wrote on Sunday morning that a leadership meeting chaired by Laporta had, “according to some versions”, decided to shelve Alvarez for good, and that Hansi Flick believes he can manage without a recognised nine. Cristina Cubero wrote the opposite in the same paper on the same day: that Flick wants Alvarez and is prepared to wait. Both are opinion columns, and the desk’s position is that the disagreement is the story, not a verdict.
What happens next
For Barca, the immediate business is elsewhere: the Blaugrana begin their LaLiga campaign away at Elche on Sunday evening, kicking off at 21:30 CEST at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero. It is a matchday-two fixture — the postponed opener against Athletic Club has been rearranged for 27 August at the Spotify Camp Nou. Laporta led the club’s delegation south and declined to say a word about the market on arrival, while Flick picks from a 23 that leaves out Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado and Hector Fort, all three expected to move before the deadline.
The Alvarez question will still be sitting there on Monday morning. What Sunday added was not progress but temperature: a striker whistled by the people he plays for, a president accusing the club he will not sell to of bad manners, and a former Barca executive telling everyone their place. Whether any of that shifts a single euro of a transfer fee is another matter entirely. Keep up with the rest of Barca’s window in our latest Barcelona news.
