Atletico Madrid encourage Real Madrid to sign Barcelona target Julian Alvarez | OneFootball

In the last 24 hours, Barcelona have been given renewed hope of signing Julian Alvarez. Earlier this week, the Atletico Madrid striker publicly expressed his desire to leave, thus opening the door for the Catalans to make their move.

Barcelona is Alvarez’s preferred destination, but Atleti are determined to ensure that he does not end up joining the La Liga champions. They have threatened legal action over what they believed to have been “illegal tapping-up” of their player, and now, they are taking further measures to ensure the Catalans don’t get their man.

According to El Chiringuito (via MD), Real Madrid have reportedly been told by Atleti that they can sign Alvarez. They had previously closed the door on that possibility after turning down an €150m offer earlier this month, but now that the Argentina international has expressed a desire to leave, they have gone back to the Bernabeu.

Alvarez only wants to join Barcelona

The problem for Atleti with offering Alvarez out to every club is that the player himself is determined to only join Barcelona. He has already knocked back approaches from the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, and the likelihood is that Real Madrid would also be turned away in the event that they open talks with his representatives.

At this stage, Barcelona are unbothered by Atleti’s actions regarding Alvarez. They know that the player wants to join them, so they are prepared to brush off whatever happens until they submit their latest offer to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano club, which they will do when the time is right – likely to be after the 2026 World Cup is over.