Barcelona ready to seal renewal of 22-year-old in ten days

Trusted journalist and Barcelona enthusiast Gerard Romero has confirmed that Ronald Araujo’s representatives visited the club’s office on Monday in order to put pen to a new contract.

Araujo, who has made 15 appearances in La Liga this season, sees his current deal expiring in 2023 and as things stand, Barcelona are looking to close negotiations within the next 10 days. While the talks are still ongoing, both parties are confident in reaching a mutual agreement.

He joined Barcelona back in 2018 from Club Atletico Boston River and was immediately assigned to the reserves team in Segunda Division B. He made his first-team debut against Sevilla in a 4-0 win in October 2019 and went on to make six appearances that season.

Ahead of the 2020/21 season, the young Uruguayan was promoted to the first and the player has since established a good relationship with both the club and the fans. However, all good things come at a cost.

A while back, several reports said that although he is willing to continue, he feels that his salary is light years away from the likes of Samuel Umtiti and Gerard Pique. There was even a mention of Eric Garcia who joined Barcelona after taking an evident pay cut.

The 22-year-old is very grateful to Barcelona for giving him a stage but at the same time, he is aware of the interest from elsewhere as well. Premier League teams like Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool are keenly monitoring his situation and will pounce on the given opportunity should the defender decides to leave Barcelona in the summer.

Luckily enough, that is not the case at the moment. Barcelona are keen on retaining the services of their young players as Ansu Fati and Pedri have already signed new deals while Gavi appears to be next on the list. Once that’s done, they will hope to tie Araujo on a mutual contract.