The Argentine gave his all on the pitch, but most of all he represents a shrewd business move which sets the Cityzens up perfectly for the future
Julian Alvarez’s first goals for Manchester City could be a metaphor for his career with the club. The Argentine made his third appearance for the club off the bench at home to Nottingham Forest with City already coasting, and he duly completed the rout with two ruthless finishes, turning a 4-0 win into a 6-0 hammering.
It was a highly efficient cameo display and a moment to savour for the player, who had only recently crossed the Atlantic to play in Europe for the first time. Someone else dominated the headlines that night though.
Erling Haaland had scored a hat-trick inside 38 minutes, notching his second treble in four games for the Cityzens. From then on it was abundantly clear that whatever Alvarez would do in a City shirt, he would forever be in Haaland’s shadow.
So it was pretty inevitable that at some point the forward, who is a regular starter for Argentina, a World Cup and double Copa America winner, would want to take centre stage at some point. He has now got the leading role he craved by signing for Atletico Madrid, where he will be the heir to Antoine Griezman.
Alvarez has been seeking a move away from City for some time, running into a familiar problem that South Americans face when moving to Manchester. He and his family will love living in Spain, home of the largest Argentine diaspora in the world.
City, meanwhile, will pocket a potential fee of £82 million($104m) and can celebrate their biggest sale of all time after what is yet another stunning piece of business from sporting director Txiki Begiristain and his team. The club can now look forward to spending the money on rearming Pep Guardiola for another assault on the Premier League title…
Getty ImagesMassive profit
Alvarez is comfortably City’s most expensive sale, eclipsing the departures of Raheem Sterling and Ferran Torres by more than £17m ($21m), rising to £34m ($43m) if the add-ons are met. The profit margin is also far larger than for Sterling and Ferran who City signed for £44m ($55m) and £20m ($25m), respectively.
Indeed, the same month that City sold Ferran to Barcelona, Alvarez was signed from River Plate for a paltry £14m ($17m). He could earn the English champions up to £68m ($86m) in profit after contributing far more on the pitch than Ferran. He leaves City having scoring 36 goals and providing 18 assists in 103 appearances, only 62 of which were starts.
AdvertisementPhoto by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty ImagesTrophies galore
Alvarez has further bloated his medal collection with City, leaving with two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. He might have had bit-part roles in some of those triumphs, but he was the star of the show in the Club World Cup final, scoring twice to bookend the thrashing of Fluminense.
Alvarez knew his role and in that first season never complained about being a squad player, starting just 13 of City’s Premier League games. Indeed, Guardiola praised his patience, which he contrasted with Joao Cancelo’s reaction to being left out that eventually led to the Portugal defender being loaned to Bayern Munich.
Getty Back on the bench
Alvarez would end up playing a much bigger role in his second season due to injuries to City’s top guns. He was the main beneficiary of Kevin De Bruyne’s long absence and for a period in late 2023 was City's player with the most Premier League minutes, starting each of their first 25 matches.
He struck up a fine partnership with Haaland and then took the baton from the Norwegian when he injured his foot, scoring six goals between December and January.
Once De Bruyne and Haaland returned to full fitness, though, he had to resume his backseat role, meaning he was substitute in key matches such as the Manchester Derby, both legs against Real Madrid in the Champions League and the FA Cup final.
He would come on in all of those matches, but missed two glaring chances against United in the final as City suffered their first defeat in more than five months.
GOAL AR / GettyFace-off
The final few months of the season seemed to seal Alvarez's fate. From his point of view, his lack of opportunities confirmed that he was only going to be a substitute when everyone was fit. Although he had begun to consider leaving City as early as in January, he started to do something about it in the summer.
Stories that he wanted to leave began to leak out to the Spanish press, and then he made his feelings clear when speaking on Argentine TV while at the Olympics. He said: “Last season, I was one of the players with the most minutes at City… You don’t like being left out of important matches, you want to contribute.”
And from City’s point of view, his final appearances underlined that while Alvarez was undoubtedly a good player, he was not a game-changing one. Guardiola made that clear with a salty response to Alvarez’s comments.
"I know he wants to play important moments, yeah. But the other ones do too,” the coach fired back while on City's pre-season tour. "I read he wants to think about it. Okay, think about it and after that he will inform us what he wants to do."