Agent of Julian Alvarez, Josep Maria, has revealed Barcelona refused to pay €20m for Alvarez but bought Ferran Torres for €60m.
Speaking to Managing Barca, Josep Maria said he offered Julian Alvarez for just €20m to Barcelona to be paid five times in five years but the La Liga giants rejected Alvarez and later choose to go for a Spaniard, Ferran Torres, who cost three times Julian Alvarez’s asking price.
“I offered Julián Álvarez to Barcelona for €20m, with the possibility of payment to River Plate over 5 years.”
“In the end, they bough Ferran Torres for €60m Torres,” he said.
While Josep Maria seems to berate Barcelona of the decision to opt for Ferran Torres instead of Julian Alvarez, Futballnews takes a look at how the two young strikers are faring since their breakout into first team club football.
Ferran Torres
Ferran Torres, 23, was regarded as one of the most promising young strikers in Europe back in Valencia where he groomed his professional career. An 11-year stint with Valencia youth side saw the Spaniard breakout into the first team with good prospects and promising stats.
Playing as a striker, Ferran Torres did not have the best of career with Valencia first team after making his debut in 2017 but was a first team regular for the Spanish side with a commanding presence in the squad. Torres scored 6 goals in 71 appearances for Valencia.
After three years with Valencia, his brilliant legwork, dribbling and other promising skills placed him on the radar of Manchester City.
In 2020, Ferran Torres joined Manchester City from Valencia signing a five-year contract for £20.8m. At City, Torres ended up on the bench as he struggled to outshine experienced strikers like Sergio Aguero from Pep Guardiola’s lineup.
In his two years with the club, Ferran Torres made only 28 Premier League appearances for the club but found the back of the net 9 times.
After a largely disappointing spell in the Premier League, Ferran Torres found a route out of his quagmire with another big club, Barcelona, on his trail.
The Spaniard joined Barcelona in 2022 and ended up struggling to get his career back in shape as he fell off the pecking order against competitors like French deadly and prolific winger Ousmane Dembele and former Leeds United winger Raphinha.
After a surreal start to life at Camp Nou, Ferran Torres did breath life back to his career in the second half of the 2022/23 season. He has made 51 La Liga appearances for the club, scoring 8 goals.
Julian Alvarez
Julian Alvarez, 23, was also another top promising youngster also playing as a striker. Julian Alvarez was a star just like Ferran Torres from inception when he was playing for Atletico Calchin youth before joining River Plate youth, one of the biggest clubs in Argentina, in 2016.
After two years with River Plate, Julian Alvarez transitioned into River Plate first team in 2018. He scored 23 times in 57 appearances for the club.
His brilliant outing with the Primeira Division top side made him a prime target for Premier League giants Manchester City.
Julian Alvarez joined Manchester City on a five-and-a-half-year contract in 2022 and got to a brilliant start as he scored the club’s only goal in a 3-1 Community Shield defeat to Liverpool.
Julian Alvarez has hit great milestones in his young career with Manchester City. His first Premier League goal for the club was a brace in a 6-0 win over Nottingham Forest while he recorded his first Champions League goal in a 5-0 win over FC Copenhagen last season.
Julian Alvarez scored against Real Madrid in Manchester City’s 4-0 Champions League semifinal win at Etihad. At 23, the Argentinian is already decorating his career with the biggest trophies in football – the World Cup trophy with Argentina national team and the Champions League trophy with Manchester City.
Although playing second fiddle to Norwegian goal machine Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez could be said to have hewn out a better career than Ferran Torres, who affirmed he “slumped into a bottomless well” in his first season at Barcelona.
