‘Don’t believe everything you see, especially if it’s related to Barca’: Atletico Madrid fires back amid Julian Alvarez rumors

The escalating transfer saga between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid over Julian Alvarez has completely boiled over. Following reports from transfer expert Fabrizio Romano on Friday morning claiming Barcelona had launched an official €100 million ($116 million) opening bid for the Argentine striker, Los Colchoneros decided they had seen enough.

In a jaw-dropping response, the Madrid club hijacked their own official social media channels to launch an all-out public war against the Catalan giants. Turning to their official X account (formerly Twitter), Atletico Madrid unleashed a series of heavily sarcastic, mocked-up transfer graphics designed to make a complete mockery of Barcelona’s reported pursuit of Alvarez.

The club first uploaded an image of Barcelona winger Raphinha wearing an Atletico Madrid kit, as if he had just signed for the club. The caption underneath delivered a direct, icy warning to football fans worldwide: “Don’t believe everything you see, especially if it’s related to Barca”.

Atletico didn’t stop there. They rolled out the exact same satirical format using Barcelona stars Pedri and Lamine Yamal. For the Yamal post, Atletico took a direct jab at traditional transfer reporting by mimicking a standard “Here we go!” announcement, sarcastically leaking the absurd “bids” they had allegedly submitted to the Camp Nou.

“HERE WE GO! We have sent a fax to FC Barcelona with our official transfer proposal: four tickets to tomorrow’s Bad Bunny concert, a one-year subscription to the ABC newspaper, and a bag of sunflower seeds. We eagerly await their response to prepare the official announcement,” the post read.

To further hammer home the absurdity of the day’s gossip, Atlético published an additional post flatly denying a bizarre, circulating rumor that they had tried to poach Barcelona’s sporting director to lead their scouting department in the Brazilian market.

Atletico slams the Barca ‘propaganda machine’

While the initial graphics utilized biting dark humor, Atletico Madrid closed their social media crusade by dropping a formal statement. The club explicitly denied recent reports claiming that Atletico had reached out to Barcelona’s sporting director, attempting to lure him away from Catalonia to head up Los Colchoneros‘ executive scouting network in the Brazilian market.

Furthermore, Atletico capitalized on the moment to deliver a final blow directly addressing the fake news campaigns aimed at their club, pointing the finger squarely at Barcelona.

“Over the past few months we have been subjected to a relentless smear campaign against one of our players. Calculated leaks, fake news, constant disrespect, the culé version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, phone calls before head-to-head clashes…,” the statement began.

“But of course, it would never occur to us either to have the vice president of the referees on the payroll or to rely on political favors to register players. RESPECT and VALUES,” Atletico concluded, taking a direct shot at the highly controversial off-pitch scandals that have engulfed Barcelona.