Barcelona snubbed €22m signing of Atletico Madrid superstar | OneFootball

Barcelona have made some questionable transfer decisions in recent years, and one of them involved the now-Atletico Madrid striker Julian Alvarez, who could have made the move to Catalonia prior to his 2024 arrival at the Metropolitano.

Alvarez, who recently reacted to his annulled penalty in the Champions League round of 16 tie against Real Madrid, has been a revelation for Atletico Madrid since his big-money move from Manchester City last summer. He had a tough start, but since then, he has moved on to 23 goals and five assists from 44 appearances across all competitions.

Alvarez is projected to Atleti’s attacking talisman once Antoine Griezmann leaves, which looks like being this summer. However, his career path could have been so different, as prior to joining Man City back in January 2022, he could have moved to Barcelona.

As reported by Relevo, Barcelona were in advanced talks to sign Alvarez for €22m in the final months of 2021, but they ended up ending that deal in favour of signing Ferran Torres from Man City, who arrived for €60m. And in the end, the Argentine would replace the Spaniard at the Etihad Stadium.

Barcelona chose to sign Ferran Torres over Julian Alvarez back in January 2022 (Image via MixCollage)

Barcelona may well rue that decision, although not as much as they would have done 18 months ago. Since the start of last season, Ferran has become a very important player, and he has regularly popped up with important goals – in particular, he has been prolific off the bench for Hansi Flick’s side during the current campaign.

Alvarez is a player that Barcelona would surely love to have now, especially as they will soon need to replace Robert Lewandowski, who is coming towards the end of his career. Atletico Madrid will certainly not be open to selling to them now, so they have missed the boat in this regard.