Julián Álvarez vs Lautaro Martínez
Two centre-forwards for one Argentina place: in 37 competitive games both played they started together seven times and never shared the pitch in a final; both started all three friendlies of Messi's farewell window.
By the Oddsivio teamLast reviewed Stats updated
Last season · club and country together · official matches
Who does what?
Lautaro Martínez scored more goals last season; Julián Álvarez, meanwhile, created more chances and completed a higher share of passes. They were level on assists.
Worth knowing: Julián Álvarez had 4,252 minutes last season, Lautaro Martínez 3,157.
What separates them
3 of 4 pass both our tests: a big enough gap, and sure enough to hold.
- Álvarez
- Martínez
- Typical forwards
- Goals per 90Martínez led0.4421 goals0.7426 goals
About two-thirds more goals: about 9 more over 30 full matches.
Held up next season: about 8 in 10
- Chances created per 90Álvarez led2.197 chances1.552 chances
About 17 more chances created over 30 full matches for Álvarez than Martínez.
Held up next season: about 9 in 10
- Assists per 90Level0.2110 assists0.207 assists
Too small a gap against typical forwards to name a leader.
- Pass completion share of passes completedÁlvarez led83%50%100%77%
Pass completion depends a lot on role and team.
Held up next season: about 9 in 10
Per 90 = per 90 minutes played, so different minutes compare fairly.
Does it hold up?
Without penalties
Lautaro Martínez still led (0.71 vs 0.34 per 90; 25 goals to 16).
How they play · volume, not a lead
Lautaro Martínez made far more interceptions (0.4 vs 0.2 per 90); Julián Álvarez tried more take-ons (2.6 vs 1.8 per 90) last season.
Why this comparison
For five years Argentina's centre-forward place went to one of two men, rarely both. Lautaro Martínez, born in Bahía Blanca in August 1997, has been at Inter since 2018 and captains them. Julián Álvarez, almost two and a half years younger, comes from Calchín, a village in Córdoba province, and went from River Plate to Manchester City and, in August 2024, to Atlético Madrid. The first game they shared was Álvarez's debut, a World Cup qualifier against Chile in June 2021. Argentina knows them by their first names, which is why this page says Lautaro where the card says Martínez. The question was Julián or Lautaro because Lionel Scaloni usually picked Lionel Messi and one centre-forward. Asked in June 2024 why not both, he said everybody would like that, and then he would have to do the defending himself.
The first international window after the 2026 World Cup changed the question: Messi played his last game for Argentina on 6 October 2026, a 3–0 friendly win over Benin in Buenos Aires, and Scaloni started Álvarez and Lautaro together in all three games. That summer Barcelona had treated them as alternatives too, making an offer for Álvarez, whom Atlético would not sell, then asking Inter about Lautaro, who said the reports were true and that he had wanted to stay.
Every number · last season
| ÁlvarezJulián Álvarez | Stat | MartínezLautaro Martínez |
|---|---|---|
4,252 | Minutes | 3,157 |
59 | Matches | 50 |
55.34Rotation · 40 club games · as of 2026-11-06 | Current squad importance | 56.56Rotation · 40 club games · as of 2026-11-06 |
0.4421 in total | goals per 90 | 0.7426 in total |
0.2110 in total | assists per 90 | 0.207 in total |
2.197 in total | chances created per 90 | 1.552 in total |
2.2105 in total | shots per 90 | 2.899 in total |
2.6124 in total | take-ons tried per 90 | 1.864 in total |
0.941 in total | tackles per 90 | 1.138 in total |
0.211 in total | interceptions per 90 | 0.413 in total |
3.3156 in total | duels won per 90 | 4.7164 in total |
83% | pass completion | 77% |
Goals and assists are counted from match events; the other counts come from the provider's detailed match stats. Squad importance describes the current club role over its recent club-game window; it is independent of the comparison window.
Have they played each other?
They have played against each other once. On 26 November 2025 Atlético Madrid beat Inter 2–1 at the Metropolitano in the league phase of the Champions League: Álvarez scored after nine minutes, a goal first ruled out for a handball in the build-up and then given after a video review, Lautaro went off after 72 minutes without scoring, and José María Giménez won it with a header in stoppage time. The 2023 Champions League final is not on the list because only one of them played: Lautaro all 90 minutes for Inter, Álvarez an unused substitute for Manchester City, who won 1–0. For Argentina, both had appeared in 37 competitive games by 13 October 2026, from Álvarez's debut in June 2021 to the World Cup semi-final against England on 15 July 2026; Argentina won 26, drew six and lost five, and three of the draws went to penalty shoot-outs that Argentina won. The count below says 36 because our records do not include the 2021 Copa América, where both were substitutes in a 4–1 win over Bolivia and Lautaro scored. Friendlies are left out, and so is the 2022 Finalissima against Italy at Wembley, where Álvarez replaced Lautaro after 85 minutes. Only seven of the 37 had both in the starting line-up: six World Cup qualifiers between October 2023 and November 2024, and the group game against Jordan at the 2026 World Cup. In 20 of the 37 one came on in the other's place, Lautaro for Álvarez 13 times and Álvarez for Lautaro seven. The two overlapped on the pitch in 14 of the 37, for about 700 minutes in all, and the only game both played from start to finish was a 2–1 defeat in Colombia in September 2024. Both scored in three of the 37, and neither has assisted the other in a competitive game. Every one of the 37 was checked against ESPN's line-ups and goal records. Atlético and Inter were not drawn against each other in the 2026–27 league phase, so the earliest they can meet again is the knockout rounds, due to begin in February 2027, and Argentina had no competitive game scheduled as of 13 October 2026.
Looking up their matches…
What the numbers don't show
The 2025/26 figures on the card come from unequal amounts of football: 4,252 minutes for Álvarez and 3,157 for Lautaro. Lautaro strained a calf muscle at Bodø/Glimt in February 2026, came back after seven weeks with two goals against Roma and hurt the same muscle within days; at the World Cup he played 311 minutes to Álvarez's 602. Serie A's review of his 17 league goals found that all were scored inside the penalty area and that ten of the 13 from open play were first-time finishes. Half of Álvarez's 20 goals for Atlético in 2025–26 came in the Champions League, where they reached the semi-finals.
Both have had long runs without a goal for Argentina, and the runs overlapped. Lautaro went 16 games between September 2022 and March 2024, through the 2022 World Cup and most of the season in which he was Serie A's top scorer with 24 goals; he then scored 11 times for Argentina in 2024. He said after the tournament that he had played the first games in Qatar on painkilling injections, with an ankle that would not let him train. Álvarez went 13 games, from the 2022 World Cup final to June 2024, so neither scored for Argentina in 2023.
Álvarez's 2026–27 club figures are small for reasons no table shows. On 22 June 2026, during the World Cup, he told ESPN that a transfer would be best for everyone; in August Atlético said there would be no negotiation with Barcelona. He rejoined pre-season late after the World Cup final, was whistled by his own supporters on his first appearance of the season, against Villarreal on 23 August 2026, and missed two games in September with a muscle problem. By 12 October 2026 he had played four league games, all as a substitute, with one Champions League start and no club goal, while Lautaro had four goals from five league games.
Estimated value
Julián Álvarez's Oddsivio estimated value is higher: €66m (#54 of 10,342 players valued) to Lautaro Martínez's €58m (#91 of 10,342 players valued). Álvarez's estimate dipped 6% since season start; Martínez's estimate dipped 7% since season start.Oddsivio estimated value — a model estimate from recent performance data, not betting advice.
Julián Álvarez
Oddsivio estimated value
€66m
−6% since season start
#54 of 10,342 players valued#11 of 511 in La Liga
Lautaro Martínez
Oddsivio estimated value
€58m
−7% since season start
#91 of 10,342 players valued#5 of 539 in Serie A
Questions fans ask
Who is better, Julián Álvarez or Lautaro Martínez?
The people best placed to say have declined to. Gabriel Batistuta said in December 2025 that he loved both, saw no differences between them and did not know how Scaloni would choose. Mario Kempes separated them by type before the 2026 World Cup final: Lautaro more a man of the penalty area, born to score, Álvarez more of a builder who also knows how to hurt a defence. The awards do not settle it either. Before the 2026 vote each had a best Ballon d'Or finish of seventh, Álvarez in 2023, after a season in which he won the World Cup and, with Manchester City, the treble, and Lautaro in 2024. Lautaro was among the 30 nominees for 2026 and finished 22nd when the result came on 26 October 2026, and Álvarez was not nominated; Lautaro has twice been Serie A's top scorer. Lautaro's own word on losing his place to Álvarez at the 2022 World Cup was that Álvarez coming into the side had given the team what he could not. On the numbers, the card above shows where one leads the other and how often a lead that size has lasted.
Why did Argentina start only one of them?
Scaloni's reason never changed: balance. In October 2023 he called them totally different forwards, Lautaro more central and Álvarez giving a great deal with his movement out wide, and said they could play together; at the 2026 World Cup he said he loved both but that with Messi in the team as well somebody had to defend and run, and a side that lost its balance could become vulnerable. So each tournament turned into a handover. At the 2022 World Cup Lautaro started the first two games and Álvarez the other five, scoring four goals. At the 2024 Copa América Álvarez started four of the six games, the final among them, and Lautaro scored five goals, three as a substitute, the last of them the winner in the final 16 minutes after he had come on for Álvarez. In 2026 it went as it had in 2022: Lautaro began the first four games, one of them beside Álvarez, who started the last four, and Lautaro then came off the bench to set up the winner against Egypt and to score against Switzerland and England. In the final, a 1–0 defeat by Spain after extra time, he was an unused substitute: Argentina's last change, made with ten men, sent on a defender for Álvarez. In five finals between 2021 and 2026 the two never shared a minute on the pitch.
Do Álvarez and Lautaro start together now that Messi has retired from Argentina?
In the three games played since the World Cup, yes. Scaloni started both in every game of the first international window after it: a 4–0 win over Bolivia in Córdoba on 30 September 2026, in which Lautaro scored the first goal; a 7–0 win over an understrength Burkina Faso on 3 October 2026, in which both scored; and the 3–0 win over Benin on 6 October 2026, Messi's last game, in which all three started. All were friendlies, so none is in the list or the card. After the Bolivia game Scaloni said there was a balance that could not be broken, and that it was his responsibility that one of the two had at times not played. With Messi also in the line-up they had started together in only three competitive games, all World Cup qualifiers in October and November 2024: a 6–0 win over Bolivia in which Messi scored three and each of them one, a 2–1 defeat in Paraguay and a 1–0 win over Peru. Argentina's next games were due in the November 2026 window, with no opponent announced by 9 October 2026, and their next major tournament is the 2028 Copa América.
Julián Álvarez vs Lautaro Martínez stats: who has more goals for Argentina?
Lautaro, from more games. On Transfermarkt's count, by 6 October 2026 he had 42 goals in 87 internationals, level with Sergio Agüero in third place on that site's all-time list for Argentina, and Álvarez had 16 in 62. At World Cups it runs the other way: Álvarez has five goals, four in 2022 and one in 2026, and Lautaro three, all in 2026, the first a penalty against Jordan in his ninth World Cup game. In the 37 competitive games both played, Lautaro scored 13 and Álvarez seven. For their clubs in 2025–26, in all competitions, Lautaro scored 22 in 41 games for Inter, who won the league and the Italian Cup, and Álvarez 20 in 49 for Atlético, who finished fourth and lost the Copa del Rey final on penalties. The card above makes the same comparison per 90 minutes, in three windows.
Have Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez played against each other?
Once, by 13 October 2026: Álvarez's Atlético won 2–1 at home to Lautaro's Inter on 26 November 2025, a Champions League league-phase game in which Álvarez scored first. The day before, Lautaro had called their relationship a friendship and said that once the game began they would be rivals. They were on opposite sides at the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul too, but Manchester City did not use Álvarez, so only Lautaro played. They never met in Argentina, where Álvarez's first game for River Plate came a few months after Lautaro had left Racing for Inter. One coincidence ties both to Atlético's ground: each has failed in a penalty shoot-out in the Champions League's round of 16 at the Metropolitano, Lautaro for Inter against Atlético in March 2024 and Álvarez for Atlético against Real Madrid in March 2025, when his kick went in but was ruled out because he had slipped and touched the ball twice. Under the current rule, clarified in June 2025, a kick scored after an accidental double touch is retaken.
What have Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez won?
With Argentina, the same things: the 2022 World Cup, the Copa América in 2021 and 2024 and the 2022 Finalissima, and both were runners-up at the 2026 World Cup. Their club careers differ. Lautaro has won every domestic trophy with Inter, three league titles, three Italian Cups and three Super Cups by October 2026, and has lost two Champions League finals, to Manchester City in 2023 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2025; by 19 September 2026 he was third on Inter's all-time scoring list with 179 goals. Álvarez won the Champions League in his first season in Europe, as part of City's 2022–23 treble, along with two Premier League titles, and before that the Copa Libertadores and the Argentine league with River Plate, but had won nothing in two seasons at Atlético by October 2026. Individually, Lautaro was top scorer at the 2024 Copa América and was named Serie A's best player for 2023–24, and Álvarez was South American Footballer of the Year in 2021.