Atletico Madrid president addresses Julian Alvarez's future at club amid links to Arsenal

Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo has provided an update on Julian Alvarez's future amid interest from Arsenal. The Gunners are in the market for a new No. 9 and reportedly have their eyes on the Argentine.

Alvarez moved to the Metropolitano Stadium last summer from Manchester City and has been a huge hit in Spain. The 25-year-old has scored 29 goals and set up seven more from 54 games across competitions for Los Rojiblancos.

His efforts have already turned heads at the Emirates. The north London side lack a proven No. 9 in their ranks, with Gabriel Jesus failing to live up to expectations.

Arsenal are eager to address the position this summer after missing out on the Premier League title once again this season. The Gunners finished second in the league, 10 points behind champions Liverpool, who are reportedly in the race for Alvarez as well.

The Argentine famously helped Manchester City win the treble in the 2022/23 campaign. As such, he could hit the ground running with a return to the Premier League.

However, speaking recently to MARCA, Cerezo insisted that Alvarez was going nowhere.

"Julian Alvarez is an Atletico Madrid player and will be an Atletico Madrid player," said Cerezo (via Metro).

Alvarez is under contract with Atletico Madrid until 2030.

Are Arsenal eyeing Benjamin Sesko this summer?

Arsenal are working on their opening offer for Benjamin Sesko, according to journalist Ben Jacobs. The RB Leipzig striker is a long-term target for the Emirates hierarchy and was also linked with the club last summer.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Jacobs added that the Gunners will try to sign the 22-year-old for less than his €80m release clause.

“I think it looks like they’re going to make a bid for Benjamin Sesko. Although Viktor Gyokeres is also being worked on simultaneously. That is normal because there’s so much competition for strikers,” said Jacobs.

He continued:

“Nobody can necessarily go all-in on one name, but we’re seeing a domino effect, Liam Delap is going to Chelsea and now Arsenal need to make their move. So much legwork has been done on Benjamin Sesko. He has a variable release clause. At the moment it’s around €80m (£67m), but I think Arsenal would like to try to negotiate something a bit lower.”

Benjamin Sesko scored 21 goals and registered six assists from 45 games across competitions for RB Leipzig this season. He is under contract until 2029.

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Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered close to 20 million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava