Atletico Madrid mock Barcelona with 'here we go' online posts, fume at ‘smear campaign’ amid Alvarez interest
Published 29/05/2026 at 22:40 GMT+1
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Atletico Madrid poked fun at Barcelona with a series of social media posts on Friday amid reported interest from the Catalan club in Julian Alvarez.
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There have been multiple reports claiming that Barcelona are interested in acquiring Alvarez from Atletico this summer.
Transfer expert Fabrizo Romano reported on Friday that Atletico have rejected a €100 million offer from Barca for the Argentinian.
And in the wake of that interest, Atletico decided to have some fun with three posts on social media, mocking the reports and the offer.
All three posts include pictures of some of Barcelona's key players - firstly Lamine Yamal, then Pedri and Raphinha - in Atletico kits with Romano's catchphrase "Here we go" at the bottom.
And each post detailed their tongue-in-cheek offer they had sent for each player.
In the post with Yamal, the club said they offered "four tickets for tomorrow's Bad Bunny concert, an annual subscription to ABC, and a bag of sunflower seeds" for the 18-year-old.
For Pedri, Atletico said: "For this second offer we've had a problem, we've run out of tickets for tomorrow's concert, so we improve the previous proposal with six for the one on Sunday."
And for Raphinha, it wrote: "To complete the 3x1, we've gotten carried away. We're going all in: the player arrives on loan for a season, and in exchange we loan out Tom Ford and Smith, with no option to buy. An offer impossible to refuse."
"Tom Ford and Smith" is a reference to an error made by Atleti president Enrique Cerezo earlier in the year when he named both as players for his side.
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Their final post said: "Finally, we want to take this opportunity to categorically deny that we have made an offer to the sporting director of FC Barcelona to join our scouting team in the Brazilian market."
After those humorous tweets, appearing to mock how transfers are reported nowadays, Atletico concluded with two follow-ups which each seemed to express more serious points.
"And remember, it took us just five minutes to create this fake post. We live in an era where reality can be altered," the club wrote. "Don’t believe everything you see, especially if it’s related to Barca."
Its final post said that it had been "suffering a smear campaign against one of our players" in recent months.
"Leaked information with ulterior motives, 'fake news,' constant disrespect, the culé version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, calls before direct match-ups," it said.
"But of course, it wouldn’t occur to us either to have the referees’ vice president on our payroll or to resort to political favours to register players. RESPECT and VALUES."
The two clubs have previously exchanged heated words over signings before, with Atletico accusing Barcelona of disrespect around the 2019 acquisition of Antoine Griezmann.
Alvarez has scored 20 goals in 49 appearances across all competitions this season and was included in Argentina's squad for this summer's 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The 26-year-old joined Atletico from Manchester City for a reported £82 million fee in 2024.
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