Deco defends Barcelona after failed Julian Alvarez transfer: “We did things right”

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·10 September 2026

Deco defends Barcelona after failed Julian Alvarez transfer: “We did things right”

Barcelona had a very good summer transfer window, but the big story was their failed attempt(s) to sign Julian Alvarez. For months, they tried to get a deal done, but ultimately, Atletico Madrid never budged on their stance of not selling to a direct rival.

Deco was at the forefront of Barcelona’s push for Alvarez, and he has now opened up on the matter during an interview on RAC1 (via MD). He started by refuting Atleti’s public claims that he and the club had acted in bad faith during the saga.

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“There are things we can’t talk about. We did things right. We made an offer of €100m to pay in three years that was not responded to, and from there, there was more talk in the press. Joan (Laporta) has already explained that he spoke to them a few times in a respectful way, and they told us that they did not want to sell the player. There is a lot of tension in the press but there are no more turns on that. We didn’t ask the player to say at the World Cup that he wanted to leave Atletico.”

Deco recalls similar case he had during playing career

Deco recalled when he was in a similar situation to Alvarez during his playing career – when he was at FC Porto, pushing for a move to Barcelona.

“I can’t say anything about whether there were pacts to leave. I can talk about my thing. At Porto, Pinto de Costa told me that he would not let me join Barça (in 2003), but he told me that he would let me leave after a year. I stayed and played well. I spoke with Mendes, the president, and he told me to go wherever I wanted. And that is despite the fact that Barça paid less than Chelsea. But that was Pinto da Costa, and this case is different. We wanted to sign Julián and they didn’t sell. Nothing happened, but they cannot say that we have not acted with respect.”

Deco also revealed that he was blanked by former Barcelona colleague and current Atleti sporting director Mateu Alemany during the Alvarez saga, although there is no problem from his side.

“I have no problem with Mateu. We shared some time at Barça. I haven’t spoken to him this summer because he didn’t answer the email. I don’t want to talk about Julián anymore because it’s a past issue.”

their plans to snatch him away from Atleti, with work already being done behind the scenes.