Araujo leaves Barça

BarcelonaRonald Araujo will pack his bags this summer. The Uruguayan defender for Barça has accepted a lightning-fast proposal from Liverpool and will go on loan to Anfield for next season. Hansi Flick does not count on him as a starter and the player has considered that the best thing for him is to look for minutes in another team. The information was first reported by Fabrizio Romano and confirmed by ARA late this Friday.

On Wednesday, Flick had a conversation with the footballer and told him that his intention for the defensive line was to continue as last season. That is to say, Araujo would not be a protagonist. The Uruguayan center-back sportingly accepted the German coach's intentions and, after meditating on it, entrusted his representatives with the task of finding him a new destination outside of Barcelona.

A lightning-fast operation

The footballer believes that, after a complicated last season at Barça, he needs to clock up minutes to regain his best form and has positively considered a change of scenery. In 48 hours, his agents have found him the option to go on loan to Liverpool, a very attractive destination. This Friday, the proposal was presented to Barça in a meeting that ended between 10 and 11 p.m. The Barcelona sporting director, Deco, has given the green light to the departure of one of his favorite footballers.

Araujo signed a millionaire renewal at the beginning of 2025 until 2031. Convinced by Deco, the charrúa extended his contract instead of leaving for Juventus, who at that time were paying a transfer fee to take him in the winter market. That decision was not followed by better performance and, adding injuries and a mental health leave of absence, the Uruguayan international gradually lost prominence to the point that Flick has preferred other players to play as a center-back.

Liverpool covers Ronald Araujo's entire transfer fee

By virtue of this agreement, Barça will free up significant salary (around 15 million euros), as Liverpool will assume it entirely in exchange for having the footballer at their disposal for the next campaign, in which they will play the Champions League under the orders of their new coach, Andoni Iraola. At Anfield he will coincide with centre-backs of the calibre of Virgil van Dijk. The English club also reserves a non-mandatory purchase option of 55 million euros, but according to sources close to Araujo's camp at Barça, the player intends to return to the blaugrana entity next season.

The departure of the Uruguayan will facilitate the registrations of the new blaugrana signings. Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi are not yet on the list of registered players in the Spanish league. Andreas Christensen's new contract, which has extended his link with Barça until 2028, has also not yet been registered. Flick – the main architect of the Dane continuing at Barça – is confident of recovering a good version of the 30-year-old centre-back. In fact, the coach rejected signing Inter player Alessandro Bastoni and placed his trust in last season's centre-back pairing, formed by Pau Cubarsí and Gerard Martín. Christensen joins this equation.

Eric Garcia can also play both in the centre of defence and at right-back. Álvaro Cortés, a left-footed centre-back from the reserve team, also has a high probability of staying with the first team. He himself stated a few days ago that he considered his time at Barça Atlètic to be over. The departure of Araujo (added to that of Marc-André ter Stegen) also opens the door to the captaincy for players like Eric Garcia or Pablo Gavi. At the moment, Frenkie de Jong, who is injured, is the one left as the first person responsible for wearing the armband.