Julian Alvarez shows up with girlfriend at Ballon d’Or after petition to dump Emilia Ferrero reaches 20,000 signatures

Julian Alvarez attended Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony with girlfriend Emilia Ferrero after a petition calling for the Manchester City star to dump his other half reached 20,000 signatures.

On Monday night, Lionel Messi won his eighth Ballon d’Or award after a stunning year which included inspiring Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar.

Alvarez finished in seventh place after winning the treble with City and playing a part in Argentina’s road to World Cup glory.

For the ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France, Alvarez was pictured walking in with Ferrero alongside the City delegation.

Back in January, there was a petition calling for Alvarez to dump Ferrero, which surpassed 20,000 signatures.

It came after a video where a group of youngsters asked for Alvarez's signature went viral. Ferrero, who plays hockey and has 177,000 followers on Instagram, appeared to only let the fans take a group picture.

That riled up some folks online and a petition titled, "Julian, break up with Mary Jane", was set up, as per The Mirror.

'Mary Jane', the name of Spiderman's love interest, is referring to the fact the former River Plate forward is nicknamed 'La Arana' - which translates to 'The Spider'.

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Alvarez signed for City in a £14 million move and has scored seven and assisted two in 20 appearances in all competitions for Pep Guardiola's side.

Guardiola has raved about his qualities and former Chile and Inter Milan star Ivan Zamorano believes he is "more complete" than both Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

"Julian Álvarez is a more complete forward than Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland," he told Ole.

"Haaland is not good on the wings. And Mbappe does not participate much as a number 9. Julian does all of that."

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