Despite being one of the most important players in the current Barcelona squad, the future of Ronald Araujo at the Catalan club has been highly uncertain for the past few months.
The Uruguayan currently has two years left on his contract, which also has a release clause of €1 billion. But, being one of the most important defenders in the team, Barcelona want to secure him even further into the future.
Both Deco and Laporta have communicated their intentions to the player, the former in a meeting with his agents, and the latter publicly some months ago.
For this purpose, Barcelona have already offered the Uruguayan a new and improved contract, but one which is still limited by the club’s FFP difficulties.
But despite the good harmony between Araujo’s entourage and Barcelona, and Laporta’s public declaration that the negotiations for this renewal were going in the right direction, Mundo Deportivo reports that the Catalans have not yet received a response from Araujo.
Now that a significant period of time has passed since that offer was made, and the Catalans have only limited days to plan for the next season, they want to push the defender to give a response about this new offer as soon as possible.
Barcelona understand that Araujo is currently one of the most highly-rated defenders in the market, and several big clubs across Europe are trying to get him, mainly Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
This is another reason they want to renew the Uruguayan, as a longer contract will give them greater leverage in any negotiations for his transfer.
But up to now, in all his public statements, Araujo has claimed that he does not want to leave Barcelona, especially as he and his family are happy to be in the city. Recently, he indicated that he will sit down for negotiations with the club at the end of this season.
