While the results have not always gone in their favor this season, no one can doubt that FC Barcelona currently have a very exciting team at their disposal. The Catalans have several players who are already playing at a very high level, and who are expected to keep playing at this level for years to come as they are quite young.
One such player who has already gone on to become an integral part of the Barcelona squad after having emerged as a promising defender is the Uruguayan Ronald Araujo. The 25-year-old is a key part of the defense for Xavi, but his importance for the Catalan team has not stopped him from being linked with other top European clubs.
In the last few months, there have been consistent reports in the media that the German club Bayern Munich is trying to lure the defender away from Barcelona. The Bavarians know of the financial situation at the Catalan club and are trying to take advantage of this weakness to get one of the best center-backs in the world into their squad.
However, as SPORT has reported, Deco, while giving an interview, claimed that it depended entirely on Araujo if he wanted to stay at the club, “If he wants to renew, he will renew”, and “We will try to make an effort.”
Further commenting on the vision that the Barcelona sporting department is following, Deco said:
“Keeping what we have is key. A winning team is not made by changing players every year. Teams that win things are those that stay together for three or four years, and this squad is incredibly eager to do important things.”
“And when you have people of this human level and capability, you have to take care of it. I’m very happy, and the idea is not to sell players but to add one or two. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Lastly, Deco also commented on the situation regarding the two important on-loan players at Barcelona, Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix:
“Neither of them is ours, I don’t know if we will be able to make additions at zero cost as we did last year. We haven’t paid any loan fee for either of them. If the situation is like last season, we count on them.”
Recently, Araujo himself had commented that his stay at the club depended entirely on Barcelona. However, now Deco has claimed that Araujo’s renewal depends only on himself, and these conflicting statements hint that the two parties are not entirely in agreement, and the defender’s future at the club may not be very certain at the moment.
