Atletico Madrid on Friday issued a statement criticising its La Liga rival Barcelona for spreading fake news regarding the transfer of Julian Alvarez.

According to media reports, the Catalan giant submitted a €100 million bid for the Argentine striker. News reports also claimed that Alvarez wanted to leave Atletico.

Atletico’s response started with AI-generated posts on social media platform X, where it announced transfer offers for Barca players Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Raphinha. The tweets were laced with derision, stating that Atletico was offering concert tickets and OTT subscriptions as fee.

Shortly after the tweets, Atletico said: “Atlético de Madrid would never do something like that. However, in recent months, we’ve been suffering a smear campaign against one of our players. Leaked information with ulterior motives, fake news, constant disrespect, the Culé version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, calls before direct matchups.”

Atletico also took a jibe at Barcelona for getting undue advantage from the league in registering its players. “ it wouldn’t occur to us either to have the referees’ vice president on our payroll or to resort to political favors to register players. RESPECT and VALUES,” the club wrote.

Published on May 29, 2026