Araújo and the power plant walkway

At Barça, the names of future prospects for the center of defense are multiplying. In recent weeks it has transpired that the club has three center-backs on its agenda that will end their contract in June. They are Niklas Süle (26), from Bayern, Andreas Christensen (25), from Chelsea, and Matthias Ginter (27), from Moenchengladbach. It means, then, that Barça is looking for reinforcements in defense, where today it has five, almost six, central defenders: Piqué, Eric, Araújo, Lenglet, Umtiti and Mingueza. It means that at least three of them (Umtiti, Lenglet and Mingueza) have ballots to leave next year. For a club that in the summer is obliged to reinforce itself on both sides and up front, the insistence on central defenders speaks of a desire for restructuring that, in principle, will not touch Piqué or Eric Garcia, but it will It has a collateral effect with Araújo.

The Uruguayan center-back, who, as As explained this Sunday, has a record of only 900,000 euros, will supervise those Barça movements, who has heavyweight rivals in the race for Süle or Christensen, so if he wants to incorporate any of them he would have to pay an amount that was not going to go unnoticed by the Uruguayan.

The club conveys that the priority is to renew Araújo as soon as possible, but he knows that the negotiation is not going to be easy because the Uruguayan is a sought-after footballer, with suitors, and knowing that Mateu Alemany has made a great effort with Ansu, Pedri and Ferran. Y Araújo wants to be as well valued as they are. The Uruguayan wants to continue. His gestures, like that symbolic one of kissing the shield despite the defeat against Madrid, demonstrate this. But as a professional, he is aware of his market value and, according to the specialized website Transfermarkt, it is 35 million euros, exactly the same as that of Süle and Christensen, and eleven million that of Ginter (24). Araújo’s renewal could end up being torture.