Atlético Madrid Declares 0% Chance of Selling Julián Álvarez to Barcelona
Atlético Madrid have gone on the offensive in the Julián Álvarez saga, declaring there is “0% chance” the Argentine will be sold to Barcelona, as the transfer row between the clubs turns increasingly bitter.
The statement came after Barça president Joan Laporta resurfaced the Catalan club’s pursuit with a new video on Wednesday, insisting their €100m (£85.7m) offer for the forward “remains on the table”.
Atlético’s response was furious.
“This is not about money, it's about dignity. The player is being victimised, but the only victim in the Julián case is us,” the club said. “They have harmed us economically and socially. There is 0% chance of selling him to Barça. There is a campaign of many lies and half-truths. The only one paying for this is Atlético.”
Booed, absent, and under siege
Álvarez’s summer has turned toxic. On Sunday, during Atlético’s draw with Villarreal, the 26-year-old started on the bench and was loudly jeered as he warmed up. The noise only grew when he entered the pitch in the 66th minute.
At full-time, he headed straight down the tunnel instead of joining his teammates to applaud the supporters. The reaction from the stands was immediate: more boos.
Diego Simeone later insisted that early exit was a pre-agreed club decision, but the optics were grim. A World Cup winner, signed from Manchester City in 2024 as a pillar of the project, now caught between a furious fanbase and a club digging in publicly.
On Wednesday, Álvarez missed training. Reports in Spain said he was unwell, adding another layer of intrigue to a week already brimming with tension.
Barcelona won’t let go
Laporta’s midweek video poured fuel on the fire. He underlined Barcelona’s “great respect” for Atlético, but made it clear the original bid from earlier in the summer still stands.
Inside the Camp Nou offices, the stance is simple: they will keep trying until the window closes. Barça see Álvarez as the ideal long-term successor to Robert Lewandowski, who left the club this summer, and they are prepared to ride out the storm to get him.
The Catalans first moved in May, opening talks and placing a formal offer. Atlético’s response then was as emphatic as it is now. They refused to sell, mocked Barça’s pursuit with a series of pointed social media posts and claimed they were the targets of a “smear campaign”.
The message hasn’t changed. Only the volume has.
Chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marín has already said Atlético would not sell Álvarez “even for 200m euros (£170.8m)”, and the club continue to publicly insist that Barça, in particular, are off limits.
Arsenal watching, Madrid rejected, PSG lurking
While Barcelona push and Atlético push back, others are circling.
Arsenal view Álvarez as a dream signing. For now, though, they are watching from a distance, increasingly realistic about how hard it will be to prise him away before next week’s deadline. Sources close to the situation maintain that Álvarez still wants to stay in Spain, which only strengthens La Liga’s big hitters.
Real Madrid have already tested Atlético’s resolve. In June, Los Blancos lodged a €150m (£130m) bid, tied to Florentino Pérez’s campaign promise to make a €150m offer for an unnamed “Galáctico” if re-elected.
Atlético rejected it, with Madrid referencing Álvarez’s €500m (£430m) release clause and claiming Atlético had “expressed its gratitude for the proposal”. Atlético then fired back online, denying any such gratitude and again stressing that they would not sell the player to Barcelona.
Paris St-Germain have also been linked, part of a growing group of elite clubs tracking one of the market’s most coveted forwards.
A player caught in the middle
Through all of this, Álvarez himself has not been silent. After Argentina’s win over Austria in June, he admitted he had spoken to Atlético about his future.
“The best thing for everyone is a transfer,” he said at the time, adding: “I want to fulfil my dream.”
Those words cut through Atlético’s “not for sale” line and effectively confirmed he was open to leaving, even as the club dug in. Barcelona and PSG quickly emerged among the leading candidates, and the noise has not stopped since.
Now, with 1 September looming, the story has become one of the defining dramas of the window: a star forward booed by his own fans, a selling club that insists it will not sell, and a buying club that refuses to walk away.
Hansi Flick, speaking before Barcelona’s game against Athletic Club on Thursday, chose not to inflame the situation further. “I only want to speak about the situation of the club,” he said, declining to discuss Álvarez directly.
The silence from the Barça bench contrasts sharply with the volume from the boardroom. Atlético, meanwhile, have made their position crystal clear.
They say there is “0% chance” of a sale to Barcelona. The clock is ticking on a transfer window that will reveal whether that is a statement of principle — or a line someone, somewhere, is eventually willing to cross.
