Atletico Madrid mock Barcelona with fax joke after Julian Alvarez transfer reports

Atletico Madrid launched an extraordinary social media offensive on Thursday after Spanish reports claimed Barcelona had submitted an opening offer of €100 million for Argentine forward Julian Alvarez, with the club dismissing the story as “just another lie” and following it with a string of satirical posts on X.

The Metropolitano club began by teasing a statement on “a relevant matter generating numerous pieces of disinformation” before publishing a series of mock transfer announcements that parodied the signature style of transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano. In the first, alongside a doctored image of Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal wearing an Atletico shirt, the club wrote: “HERE WE GO! We have sent a fax to Barcelona with our transfer offer: 4 tickets for tomorrow’s Bad Bunny concert, an annual subscription to ABC, and a bag of sunflower seeds. We eagerly await the response to prepare the ‘announce’.”

A second post featured Barcelona midfielder Pedri, with Atletico joking they had run out of concert tickets and were upgrading the offer to six seats at a later show. A third targeted Raphinha, with the club claiming they would accept him on loan in exchange for sending out two unnamed squad players — “Tom Ford and Smith” — with no option to buy.

The club then shifted tone, using the thread to issue a more pointed statement. “In recent months we’ve been suffering a smear campaign against one of our players,” Atletico wrote. “Leaked information with ulterior motives, ‘fake news,’ constant disrespect, the culé version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, calls before direct matchups.” The statement also contained a pointed reference to Barcelona’s well-documented financial and registration difficulties, adding: “It wouldn’t occur to us to have the referees’ vice president on our payroll or to resort to political favours to register players.”

Alvarez, 25, joined Atletico from Manchester City last summer for a reported €75 million and has been one of the standout forwards in La Liga this season. Beyond Barcelona, Arsenal have also been mentioned in connection with the player ahead of the summer window.

Atletico captain Koke, speaking to Marca, said he had been on holiday in Menorca with his phone switched off and had only become aware of the situation upon returning, adding that he had been disconnected from football matters during the break.