Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo is out of contract in 18 months time, and after the first real attempts to extract him last January, Juventus are now in hot pursuit of him. The 25-year-old recently returned to action after five months out with injury.
The Bianconeri are desperate to strengthen their backline after losing Juan Cabal, Bremer and Danilo to injury and transfer, and Araujo is their primary target, after Feyenoord’s David Hancko rejected a January move. Gianluca di Marzio has told Sky Sports Italia, as carried by MD, that Juventus Sporting Director Cristian Giuntoli is hoping to advance negotiations as soon as possible. They are awaiting a response from Barcelona, and also considering a move for Benfica’s Antonio Silva.
Barcelona are frustrated, claiming different criteria are used for punishing Real Madrid and Barça players. Vinícius Jr. got just a 2-game ban for hitting Valencia's goalkeeper off the ball and reacting very aggressively to his red card. Meanwhile, Lewandowski was hit with a…
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) January 8, 2025
This does greatly contradict the reporting coming out of Spain. While Araujo was coy on his contract situation over the weekend, saying ‘we’ll see’ about a renewal, Barcelona have their doubts about his desire to leave. The Blaugrana feel that going behind their back to negotiate with Juventus is out of character, and as of yesterday, had reportedly not received an approach for him.
Whether they receive any approach for Araujo or not; it is what it is.
Araujo is a player that should never have carried Barcelona Captain band, given his attitude over his deliberately prolonged contract renewal talk.
Barcelona should just sell him without blinking an eye.
Ever since the financial issues came to light and the rules became tighter, Barca has continuously deployed a trick tactic to avert the salary issue. They re-negotiate the salaries with a clause to seemingly reduce the current year’s salary with subsequent years salaries getting progressively higher. This helps them pass the salary test rules for La Liga.
This tactic however, means that a couple of years down the line the players seemingly are being paid a higher wage when in fact it is actually delayed salary catching up. At this stage they try to get rid of the player so that the high salary does not need to get paid. I said “tried” because they have had difficulty selling the players … the players want to stay and earn the money they were short-changed for earlier. This is in effect FDY, Lewandowski, Araujo and a few others. An earlier generation saw the same tactic applied to Jordi Alba, Busquets, Pique, et al. They hung around long enough to be classified as “sponging” funds.
With all this at play… I would delay talks too. At the end of the day it is a job and they need to get paid the agreed contract in full. It is not their job to solve Barca’s financial crisis.
I hope Araujo gets to go to a top club and gets his deserved salary… he is a really good player.
Makes sense that noone wants to sign for them anymore.