Fresh Update Provided on Real Madrid Bid for Julian Alvarez

On Tuesday, the 9th of June 2026, Real Madrid officially confirmed in a club statement that they had bid 150 million Euros for Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez. 

Now, this came as a huge shock to everyone. Five days previously, president Florentino Perez stated that a bid of that amount of money would indeed be made, but the masses generally expected it to be for someone like Vitinha, Joao Neves or Michael Olise. 

So, the news that it was Alvarez shocked the world, despite some whispers of the 26-year old earlier on in the day. In the same statement, Real Madrid confirmed that the bid had been rejected by Atletico, and that they referred to the player's 500 million Euros release clause. 

This saga has lead to some suggestion that the club did not actually make the bid, and some suggestion that they did make the bid, but knowing full well that it would be rejected, with no or very little intention to actually sign the Argentina international. 

Well, it seems as if the latter is indeed the case, as high profile and highly reliable Argentine journalist Gaston Edul has said the following: "My feeling is that they did this for show, so that Florentino Perez fulfils his promise, and saying the offer was rejected which therefore f*cks up the Barcelona path (they are heavily linked with the player)." 

Certainly interesting. So from that, it feels it was more of a case of they did actually make the bid, but knowing it would be rejected - rather than not actually making the bid and pretending they did. 

However, El Chringuito are reporting that Atletico were shocked at the statement because all Real Madrid was simply make a phone call (query) for Alvarez, and that no real bid was made. So, perhaps it was that after all. Maybe a bit of both, as the cliche goes. 

Certainly an absolutely crazy couple of days, and the transfer window has not even opened yet. Hell, the World Cup has not even started yet. It is going to be an absolutely whirlwind summer in store, for better or worse, there is no doubt about that at all. 

It felt like we had heard the last of the Alvarez saga, but perhaps not. Who even knows at this point. If he wasn't the mystery player after all, will we end up finding who was, or, who is?