Lewandowski’s Successor? Julián Álvarez Emerges as Barcelona’s Top Transfer Target

Julian Alvarez has been linked with a move to Barcelona throughout this year, with his agent making it clear in the summer he would be happy to play for the Catalan giants.

The striker’s first manager has now added some fuel to that particular fire by claiming he’s not “comfortable” at Atletico Madrid under Diego Simeone and adding that he’s always been a culer.

”I don’t see him comfortable at Atlético. I think he’s played too many games on the sidelines, he’s never played in the position he should be playing. I know he’s told his family that he’s thinking about the team, he thinks he plans to play and do well, and his goal is to continue being the national team’s No. 9,” Hugo Rafael Varas told Super Deportivo Radio.

“Today, Atlético is a team that defends a lot and attacks little. I see him more of a passer than a finisher. He’s scoring goals from free kicks or from outside the box. The team isn’t getting much done for Julián to be the No. 9 he scored goals for River Plate.”

Varas also thinks Alvarez could be tempted to move on and join either Barcelona or Real Madrid.

”We’ve seen games where Julián was defending in the opponent’s goal. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that. He gets along well with Simeone, but his way of playing is defending,” he added.

“The other day, when they took him off, he was angry. He was coming from missing the penalty and it wasn’t good that they took him off. He was also coming back from recovering from an injury and maybe Simeone wanted to look after him. For me, he was angry about that too. It was a combo.

“I think that at some point there will be a change of coach or the same. Recently a person told me to go to Barcelona and the truth is that he is not at Barcelona because he did not put the money he had to put in. He would leave, because he was always a Barcelona fan. I would like him to play for Real Madrid.”

Barcelona are expected to be in the market for a new striker in the summer to take over from Robert Lewandowski, meaning there may be more talk of a move for Alvarez throughout the campaign.