Joan Laporta is not backing off. The Barcelona president confirmed publicly that the club has lodged an official bid for Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez and set a soft deadline — end of the month — for Atletico to respond, despite repeated insistence from the Madrid side that the Argentine is not for sale.
“We’re still on the table with an offer,” Laporta said, speaking ahead of the FIFA World Cup final. “He’s a player our manager wants, which is why we made the offer to Atletico Madrid. It’s a very important and very, very good offer for us.”
Atletico chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marín and club president Enrique Cerezo have both publicly shut the door on any sale. Laporta chose not to escalate. “I respect everyone’s opinion. I respect Miguel Ángel’s opinion and everyone else’s,” he said. Then he added a line that sounded less like diplomacy and more like a man who has seen this movie before: “There are so many cases where it’s been said that a player would never go to Barça and yet he’s ended up coming.”
The timeline, according to Laporta, is not indefinite. “We will set a reasonable deadline. I would say until the end of the month,” he said. He then framed the pursuit through Barcelona’s broader philosophy on player power: “When a player wants to leave, Barça’s stance as a club is that, if a player wants to leave Barça, we’ll give him a golden handshake. A big club cannot afford to have players who are unhappy.”
Behind the scenes, Barcelona’s confidence rests on two pillars. First, the belief that Alvarez himself is determined to explore the move once his World Cup duties with Argentina conclude. Second, a channel that runs well beyond the two clubs’ sporting directors. Per Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona have maintained contact with Atletico’s ownership group — the Apollo investment fund — which has strategic ties to Goldman Sachs, the financial institution that remains Barcelona’s principal creditor. Those relationships are being treated as leverage, not just courtesy.
Barcelona expect next week to be the inflection point. Manager Hansi Flick wants Alvarez available for the first team’s pre-season camp in England, where several international players will report back for club duty. The club has deliberately held off on further moves out of respect for Alvarez’s international commitments, but once the World Cup final is behind him, the pace is expected to quicken.
The sporting department has not frozen other business. Alternative attacking options are being evaluated in case the Alvarez pursuit collapses — a contingency that suggests Barcelona’s optimism, while genuine, is not blind.
Laporta’s closing remark carried the weight of someone who knows the offer alone will not close the deal. “It’s no longer just a question of the offer made, but also, if there is a good offer, we have to take advantage of it.” The film doesn’t lie — Barcelona have made their move. Now they wait to see whether Atletico blinks.
Sources
- Yahoo Sports — Laporta fires back after Atletico’s attack on Barcelona’s Alvarez bid
- Yahoo Sports — Key details of Laporta’s deadline for Alvarez transfer