Barcelona Pursues Julián Álvarez Amid Raphinha's Striker Success

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are still locked in a stand-off over Julián Álvarez, and neither side looks ready to blink.

Barcelona want the Argentine striker. Badly. Atletico won’t even sit down to negotiate.

Spanish newspaper El País reports that inside the Camp Nou offices, Raphinha is steadily proving Hansi Flick and sporting director Deco right. Before the window truly caught fire, the pair had reached a blunt conclusion: if neither Álvarez nor Inter’s Lautaro Martínez could be signed, there was no striker on the market clearly better than what Barcelona already had.

So they pushed hard for Álvarez. They still are. The pursuit has irritated Atletico, whose refusal to engage has only hardened the edges of what has become a simmering dispute between the clubs. A tentative call from Deco to Inter about Lautaro was even shorter-lived; it quickly convinced him that prising a forward out of Milan was a non-starter.

The tension off the pitch contrasts sharply with the calm Flick projects on it.

Raphinha, usually a winger, has been thrown into the role of out-and-out striker. He started there in the league opener against Elche and struck twice. He did it again against Athletic Bilbao and scored once more, answering the main question hanging over Barcelona’s summer: where would the goals come from if the big-name No 9 never arrived?

Flick sounded unconcerned when asked about the Brazilian’s new role. “I do not care in which position Raphinha plays, what matters to me is what he shows on the pitch,” the coach said. “The fans connect with him and with the team. We have a great atmosphere, and that is the most important thing. What matters is how the press begins.”

While the Álvarez saga rumbles on, Flick is refusing to be dragged into the political theatre of the market. “I do not want to comment on matters of this kind. We won our second match in a row, and that is what matters to me,” he said when pressed again on the Argentine.

For now, it looks increasingly unlikely that Barcelona will land Álvarez. Atletico are entrenched, Barcelona are insistent, and the clock is ticking.

In the meantime, the club’s notable summer deal on the pitch is Rodri, who received warm applause from the Camp Nou crowd, as highlighted by El País. Raphinha scores, Rodri is welcomed, the team wins twice to start the season — and the great striker chase that dominated the summer still hangs in the air, unanswered.