Despite Miguel Ángel Gil Marín breaking the silence to assure that Julián Álvarez is not for sale, the reality is that both the CEO of Atlético de Madrid and a good part of the employees in the offices of the mattress club are convinced that it is highly probable that the forward will leave the club this summer. Could he stay? Yes, if no agreement is finally reached with the interested clubs, but El Aranya wants to leave and Apollo, the investment fund that recently controls the entity, is already willing to do business with the Argentine footballer. The problem is the destination. Because Julián wants to play for Barça, a club he has dreamed of since he was little. However, the mattress executives do not want to strengthen a direct rival in the fight for the League, Cup, and Super Cup titles. They prefer PSG. Or Arsenal, which would be willing to make an exchange offering money and with the Swede Viktor Gyökeres as a bargaining chip. However it ends, everyone is clear that the saga will be long and will have plot twists.

Argentina has beaten Austria (2-0) and secured their ticket to the round of 16 of the World Cup. Leo Messi has surpassed Germany's Miroslav Klose and has become the all-time top scorer in World Cups with 18 goals. But all of this has been overshadowed by the strong statements made by Julián Álvarez in the mixed zone in Dallas. The Atlético de Madrid forward wants to change scenery after two seasons under Diego Pablo Simeone. Having turned 26 in January, he believes his career needs a new boost, with Barça as his favorite future option.

Neither Michael Olise, nor Vitinha, nor Harry Kane. The world-class star that its president, Florentino Pérez, announced a few days ago during his campaign on Iker Jiménez's program was Julián Álvarez. Or, at least, that's what can be understood from the statement Real Madrid issued on Tuesday evening. "Real Madrid announces that, after the board of directors meeting held this Tuesday, it has made an offer of 150 million euros to Atlético de Madrid for the federative rights of Julián Álvarez," the club stated at the beginning of the document, which concluded with another clear paragraph: "After studying and evaluating it, Atlético de Madrid has appreciated the offer, made within the framework of the good relations between the two clubs, and has rejected it, referring to the player's release clause".

Barça's financial fair play went up in smoke in 2020. With the pandemic and closed stadiums, revenues fell and the club was left with no capacity to pay player salaries. In 2021, with Joan Laporta in the box, the decision to tweak the numbers and load up to 555 million in losses onto the fiscal year that had started with Bartomeu as president, only aggravated the problem to the extreme. Five years later, and despite having activated levers, having fine-tuned the wage bill, and having closed low cost, the club is heading towards another summer with problems to face the transfer market normally.