Julián Araujo’s move to Barcelona required taking the scenic route, but he finally got to where he was going.
The Mexico defender’s transfer from the LA Galaxy to Barca has finally reached an end point, with the MLS side announcing Friday that the 21-year-old is in fact heading to Cataluña.
“Julián joining FC Barcelona is a great story of a young kid from Southern California coming into the LA Galaxy academy, through LA Galaxy II and excelling with the first team,” said Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney. “We wish Julián all the best in the next phase of his career.”
Per Barca, Araujo will join their B team, Barcelona Atlétic, after signing a contract that runs through June 2026.
Araujo’s path to this point is a long one. Rumors connected him to a European move, or possibly to Club América, but as deadline day approached in January, the situation came into view. Barcelona, having sold Héctor Bellerín to Sporting CP on deadline day, was now short-handed at the position and had the California native in their sights.
The clubs agreed to a reported $4 million deal for Araujo, but amid the chaos of the transfer window closing, a delay Barca has blamed on a computer error saw the relevant paperwork submitted 18 seconds past the deadline.
Barcelona appealed unsuccessfully to FIFA, and then said they would approach the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the hopes that the move could go through anyway.
“We wanted him for the second team. We want him and we’ll look for a solution, via the Court of Arbitration for Sport or he can play in another team for five months and then join us,” said Barca director of football Mateu Alemany.
In the meantime, Vanney told the Los Angeles Daily News that Araujo was “in limbo,” adding that the Galaxy hadn’t seen a final ruling or any documentation informing them as to whether he was off to Barcelona, or if he could still play for them in the meantime.
Questions still unanswered
It’s not entirely clear what changed to pave the way for Friday’s announcement from the clubs. MLSsoccer.com reported that the CAS appeal was denied, which would leave Araujo with no path to be registered by Barca this season.
However, by completing the transfer of his playing rights anyway, the possibility of Araujo playing for the Galaxy until this summer would, at the very least, require the clubs to reach a loan agreement for an MLS return.
Per LAG Confidential, the Galaxy have said that Araujo couldn’t even participate in preseason work with them during the ordeal, but even the reasons behind that are currently unclear. Did Barcelona have Araujo’s International Transfer Certificate already? Or were the Galaxy simply complying with a request from Barcelona while the appeals worked out?
It is possible that Araujo’s transfer is truly done and dusted, but that Barca simply won’t be able to register him until the next transfer window opens on July 3. There’s nothing preventing him from signing his contract, training with Barcelona, being paid, and just not playing in any official games for the Spanish giants or their B team.
However, it’s obviously not ideal for a player at Araujo’s age to just sit out five months of matches when completely healthy. Barcelona’s acknowledgement that the transfer is done would instead point to the club bringing him in to train while sorting out a place that they can loan him to until the summer. The European transfer window may be closed, but that doesn’t prevent teams there from loaning or transferring players away, and there are countries with open transfer windows all over the world.
Until Barca figures out what their solution is, though, Araujo’s status being “in limbo” remains the case. With the contract being signed, the circumstances have certainly changed, but at the moment at least, he’s still a man without a club that he can legally take the field for until July.
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