‘You make us laugh more than Barcelona’ - Atletico Madrid brutally mock arch-rivals Real following shock €150m Julian Alvarez bid revelation

Real Madrid took the highly unusual step of publishing a formal announcement regarding their transfer business. The Santiago Bernabeu outfit confirmed they saw a monumental €150 million proposal for Alvarez turned down by Atletico Madrid. Detailing the rejection, the official club statement read: "Real Madrid C. F. announces that, following the meeting of the Board of Directors held today, it has made an offer of 150 million euros to Club Atlético de Madrid for the federative rights of the player Julian Álvarez." Following the rebuttal, Los Blancos are widely expected to be forced into paying his astronomical €500m release clause to break the contract completely.

Taking to their official social media account, Atletico launched a scathing response to the extraordinary statement released by their city rivals. The club completely denied negotiating any potential transfer, whilst brutally mocking their bitter adversaries in the process.

Their official statement read: "Official statement with our clarifications regarding the official statement from our neighbors Real Madrid: 1. Your video of the Pope got cut off before he said he was also an Atleti fan. 2. You may have confused politeness with gratitude, but just to be clear: we don’t thank you for anything. 3. We are neither considering nor evaluating any offer for Julián."

The remarkable social media onslaught did not stop there, as the Rojiblancos delivered another public jab, reading: "4. How could we not get along, when you make us laugh even more than Barcelona?" They later added: "P.S. Taking advantage of the good relationship with your new president, let's see if you stop "stealing" players from our Academy. Thanks a lot, Real Madrid!".

Several days ago, Barcelona were similarly humiliated after submitting a €100m (£86m/$115m) bid. Atletico went public with a series of mock-up images, jokingly offering match tickets, an annual subscription, and sunflower seeds in exchange for Lamine Yamal.

Real and Barcelona must now decide whether to pursue Alvarez or completely abandon their ambitious transfer plans. With Atletico adopting such an aggressive defensive stance, securing the forward's signature appears increasingly impossible. The two Spanish heavyweights will likely need to negotiate a reduction in the Argentine's release clause if they truly want to force a dramatic late summer deal.