Real Madrid? Barcelona? Alvarez reveals Haaland’s true love

Suraj Radia

• 8 Mar 2023 12:11 GMT
• 5 min read

Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez has revealed which team his strike partner Erling Haaland is ‘obsessed’ with, much to the Argentine star’s disapproval.

Haaland has been prolific since joining City from Dortmund in the summer and the 22-year-old is believed to have a £200 million release clause in his contract which becomes active in 2024, prompting interest from the likes of Real Madrid.

However Alvarez, who began his professional career with River Plate, has admitted that Haaland’s favourite team is not Real or Barcelona but rather Boca Juniors.

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Boca are the most successful club in Argentina and bitter rivals of River, prompting Alvarez to claim that he will try to change the opinion of Haaland.

"Beyond what we all know about football, [Haaland] is a good boy,” Alvarez told TyC Sports. “He helps me, we talk and from the outside I try to look at him to learn.

“Since I arrived he told me that he was from Boca and he told me about La Bombonera. I think he was with Leonardo Balerdi in Borussia Dortmund and that influence was a bit.

“Let's see if we change it little by little, it's going to be difficult but we're going to try!”

Haaland’s fascinating love for Boca

While the striker’s love for Boca may be surprising to some, Haaland’s former Dortmund teammate Balerdi had previously revealed how he ‘drove the Norwegian crazy’ with stories of the Argentine giants.

"When I was at Borussia, from the first day he asked me which was the best team, the one with the most history in Argentina,” Balerdi said. “I drove him crazy with Boca, I showed him videos of the fans, photos of the stadium and everything related to Boca.

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“He told him what it felt like to play in La Bombonera, which was something unique, and showed him videos of the exploded stadium, when the fans fell down.

“He became a bit of a fan of Boca and to this day we are in contact and every time he sees a video of Boca he sends it to me.

“He annoys me and asks me 'When are we going?' So hopefully one day he'll have to live that, I'm going to do the impossible so he can live it.

“He asked me to send him a Boca shirt with the number 9 on it. He's quite a fan. I'm going to keep driving him crazy so that it happens every time a little more."