Neither Gavi nor Araújo; Barça renews Sergi Roberto first

As announced by the newspaper Sport this Monday afternoon, Sergi Roberto, 30 years old, will continue for another year at Barcelona after the agreement reached by Mateu Alemany, football director of the Barça club, with Josep Maria Orobitg, his representative. The renewal comes as a surprise, after Joan Laporta himself dropped in an interview after the Clásico that the versatile midfielder had lost his chance in September, when he gave up extending his contract to reduce the salary limit of the squad. Then, the economic vice president, Eduard Romeu, came to consider closed a renewal that did not come. Everything seemed to be running towards the end of the Catalan cycle in the club of his life, but a new twist in the script has surprised.

Sergi Roberto has now gone through Alemany’s hoop and accepts a clearly downward contract for a single year. For the player, however, it is a personal challenge to leave Barça in another scenario. Cheated by the public at the beginning of the season, and battered by injuries until, on Xavi’s recommendation, he decided to undergo surgery, he dreams of a great 2022-23 season that allows him to leave the club, if there is no remedy, with a better taste in the mouth.

The news will never be badly received in the Barça environment because Sergi Roberto is from the house and he has spent his entire career dressed as a Barça player. He has been an example of behavior and has had good seasons. But he is not exciting either and, of course, it is not the first renewal that the fans expected, pending negotiations with Araújo and Gavi.