Julián Álvarez entered a long, dark tunnel on his own. “We’re stronger together,” Giuliano Simeone said but that wasn’t the way it went. At the end of their first home game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Villarreal, all of Atlético Madrid’s players gathered by the centre circle, shook hands with their opponents and each other, then headed towards the south end of the Metropolitano. Almost all of them did, anyway: one was left behind. Somebody in a suit had a quiet word then the press officer came, pointing in the other direction. So, while his teammates turned to the supporters who had turned on him, the man wearing No 19 went west, to the exit.
Álvarez walked alone. Head down in silence, as he had been all afternoon and beyond, he set off slowly across the pitch accompanied only by his thoughts and the whistles that followed him. Not offered a hand to shake or a nod of acknowledgment, he stepped past the Atlético badge on the touchline where the mouth of the tunnel opens. Either side, supporters hung over the void, whistling and shouting. Way off to his left, Atlético’s other players paused, seemingly waiting for him to slip out of sight before approaching the stand, but none turned back. A scarf was thrown, landing at Álvarez’s feet and left lying there. And then he disappeared into the dark, a portrait of the place he is in.
