Manchester City feels grateful to Barcelona. This is because they recruited Julian Alvarez, who was reborn as a World Cup star, with the money from selling Ferran Torres, who was a bench resource.

Spain’Sport’ reported on the 14th (Korean time), “Man City signed a contract with Alvarez with the funds obtained from the sale of Torres to Barcelona. They signed Alvarez for 20 million euros (approximately 27.6 billion won) in January this year.” did.

Torres was Spain’s promising prospect. He, who ate rice with Lee Kang-in in Valencia, was reborn as the core of the 2019-20 season and became a ray of light for the stumbling team. In particular, his performance in the second leg of the round of 16 against Atalanta in the European Football Association (UEFA) Champions League (UCL) was enough to make several big clubs drool.

Man City snatch Torres. In the summer of 2020, he succeeded in holding him in his arms for an amount of 33.5 million euros (approximately 46.3 billion won). Torres played an active role in the first season of his transfer, such as the false nine, but the following season, he was classified as a replacement resource and was completely excluded from Pep Guardiola’s plan.

He eventually found a new team. Torres moved his nest to Barcelona after being called by coach Xavi Hernandez in the winter transfer market of the 2021-22 season. It was not a bad offer for the player, as Xavi mentioned that he was a ‘big fan’ of Torres. It was also a successful deal from Manchester City’s point of view, selling a bench player for 55 million euros (approximately 76 billion won).

With this money, Man City acquired ‘Argentine god’ Alvarez. On January 31, 2022, Manchester City secured the transfer of Alvarez on condition that he stay at his home team River Plate for another six months. The transfer fee was only 21.4 million euros (approximately 29.6 billion won), less than half of Torres’s. 스포츠토토

So far, Manchester City are laughing. Álvarez, who is mainly playing as a substitute this season, is showing decent performance with 5 goals and 2 assists in 18 matches in all competitions. In addition to this, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he was reborn as a ‘World Cup Superstar’ by leading Argentina’s attack with Lionel Messi and guiding his country’s finals with 4 goals and 1 help in 6 games.

A move that contrasts with Torres. Unlike last season, Torres is not fully trusted by coach Xavi, going back and forth between starting and replacing this season. Even in the World Cup, despite not bad performance with 2 goals in 4 matches, they collapsed in Morocco, the ‘dark horse’, and had to finish their World Cup journey in the round of 16.