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Real Madrid have had a €150 million ($173.25 million) bid for Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez rejected, the club confirmed on Tuesday.
The Spanish club stated that Atletico turned down the offer, citing the Argentine international’s substantial €500 million release clause.
“Real Madrid CF announces that, following today’s Board of Directors meeting, it has made an offer of 150 million euros to Club Atletico de Madrid for the federative rights of the player Julian Alvarez,” the club said on its official website.
“After studying and evaluating it, Atletico de Madrid has thanked the club for the offer, made within the framework of the good relations existing between both clubs, and has rejected it, referring to the player’s release clause.”
Alvarez scored 20 goals in 49 appearances for Atletico last season as they finished fourth in the table.
The announcement comes a day after Florentino Perez won Real Madrid’s first contested presidential election in two decades, securing another four-year term.
Florentino Perez recently won Real Madrid’s presidential elections (AP)
In the run-up to Sunday’s vote, Perez had said he would spend 150 million euros on an unnamed player to be revealed on Tuesday, a fee that would represent a club record.
The 79-year-old Spanish construction magnate was acclaimed as the winner by Real Madrid TV, while his rival, renewable energy tycoon Enrique Riquelme, conceded defeat a little over one hour ahead of the official tally.
Perez won 65% of the vote, the club’s official count showed, while Riquelme took 35% of a total of 33,555 members who voted at Real’s Valdebebas training ground on the outskirts of Madrid on Sunday.
“I would like to congratulate Florentino Perez’s campaign on its victory. Real Madrid will not go another 20 years without an election,” Riquelme told reporters.
Perez called the election on May 12 despite having two years left on his mandate, after a second straight season without silverware for the record 15-times European champions and with arch-rivals Barcelona retaining their LaLiga title.
He declared the result “extraordinary” in a victory speech at a hotel in the Spanish capital and said Real had “set an example to the world of transparency and harmony”.
“This has been a great day for Real Madrid. We have won across the board, that is to say, across all age groups. And we have achieved the second-best result in the history of Real Madrid elections,” Perez said.
Perez first became Real president in 2000 and had renewed his mandate five times since 2009 by running unopposed. The club had not held a formal presidential vote since 2006, when Ramon Calderon won by a narrow margin.