We had seen him somewhere else
He was dragging his feet in training. You could spot it from a mile off.
Julian Alvarez spent a summer not quite knowing where he stood. Barcelona kept pushing, Atletico kept saying no, and the Metropolitano crowd ended up booing him. The Argentine took the whole mess badly, with several Spanish outlets talking about deep unhappiness. No small thing for a 26-year-old who arrived in Madrid two years ago with a World Cup winner’s badge on his back.
On Saturday at San Mames he came off the bench in a flat 3-0 defeat to Athletic Bilbao. He did not turn the game. There was something different about the way he ran.
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What the Madrid press is picking up
Marca published fresh details on the Argentine this Sunday. Involved, driven, consistent, and all of it carrying over into training across the week. The word doing the rounds in Spain is reconciliation. Alvarez wants the dressing room and the stands back.
He is not on his own with it. Juan Musso is one of the team-mates around him day to day, and behind the scenes the club is pushing to help him find his feet. That may be the real story: nobody at Atletico has chosen to cut him loose, even after a soap opera that dragged on for weeks.
A pause, not the end
This one is not closed. Catalan media already say Barca will come back in during the winter. El Chiringuito de Jugones goes further and claims Atletico could, this time, be willing to let him go in early 2027. None of that is official. It is noise, not fact.
Until then, there is a season to play. And an immediate test: Liverpool away in the Champions League this week. Anfield, a European night, an attacker trying to make peace with his own crowd. Hard to script a better stage for a reset.
Or for the row to start all over again.
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