Julian Alvarez Stopped Training Amid Atletico Madrid Transfer Saga

Julian Alvarez has stopped turning up for Atletico Madrid training after being told, in no uncertain terms, that the club will not sell him to Barcelona – and the only escape route now realistically open leads to Arsenal.

Atletico informed the Argentina forward and his camp earlier this week that they would not even sit down with Barca to discuss a deal. No negotiations, no compromise. Since that conversation, the 26-year-old has missed two straight training sessions, officially citing illness.

The message from the club has been loud and consistent. Within 24 hours, Atletico issued two public statements backing up their private stance: Alvarez will not be granted his wish to move to Barcelona in the coming days.

The door to London, though, is being held ajar.

Atletico are willing to sell to Arsenal and have already held direct talks with the Premier League champions over what would be one of the headline transfers of the summer. Director Mateu Alemany travelled to London last week, where he met Arsenal officials and spelled out the price: 150m euros (£128m).

Mikel Arteta wants Alvarez this month. Badly. But the striker’s determination to join Barcelona has stalled Arsenal’s push and left the deal in a kind of limbo, with one club ready to sell, another ready to buy, and the player looking elsewhere.

Even so, conversations between Atletico and Arsenal over a club-to-club agreement are described as positive. The framework is there. The fee is clear. The structure is being discussed.

If Alvarez changes his mind and gives Arsenal the green light in the coming days, those talks are expected to accelerate and a transfer could move quickly.

Barcelona, though, refuse to step out of the story. On Wednesday, club president Joan Laporta publicly insisted they still want to sign Alvarez. Atletico fired back within hours with a blunt statement: “There is 0% chance of selling him to Barca.”

The board then went one step further on Thursday, issuing another declaration: “The members of Atletico de Madrid’s board of directors have unanimously expressed their absolute support for the club’s decision to not negotiate the transfer of Julian Alvarez to FC Barcelona.”

So the lines are drawn. Atletico have shut the door to Barcelona and left it wide open to Arsenal. Now the question hangs over Alvarez: does he hold out for a move he cannot get, or walk through the only exit his club are willing to offer?