Barcelona defender tipped for greatness by former teammate: “Will be the best in the world” | OneFootball

PSV Eindhoven captain and striker Luuk de Jong has predicted a golden future for Barcelona star Ronald Araujo, claiming that the Uruguayan will be best defender in the world for an extended period.

De Jong was at Sevilla when Araujo made his first-team debut for Barça and the striker and the two shared the dressing room together while the Dutchman was on loan at the Catalan club during the 2021/22 season.

Araujo bound for greatness

Having seen Araujo from close quarters, the Dutch striker believes that he is a special player and is bound for a great future in the game.

Speaking in an interview with AD, De Jong waxed lyrical over Araujo as he said: “When I played at Sevilla, he made his debut for Barcelona in a game against us. I immediately thought: this is a world-class player in the making.”

“He was just 20 at the time. Uruguayan, fast, strong, also good on the ball. He is now 24 and will be the best defender in the world for the foreseeable future,” the former on-loan Barcelona forward remarked.

Luuk de Jong expects great things from Araujo. (Photo by JAIME REINA/AFP via Getty Images)

The veteran striker also reminisced about his time with Araujo at Barcelona, recounting how the Uruguayan had pocketed Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr while playing as a right-back in an El Clasico fixture.

“A nice, very positive guy. He was intentionally put at right-back by Xavi at Barça against Real Madrid to stop Vinicius Jr. Had Vinícius in his pocket, didn’t he!”

From unknown quantity to club captain

When Barcelona signed Araujo from Boston River back in 2018, not many had heard of the Uruguayan defender.

But ever since he made his debut in October 2019 against Sevilla, the centre-back has just made huge strides in his career year after year.

Now, Araujo stands as one of the leaders of this current Barcelona team and has even been rewarded with the position of the third club captain this season following the departures of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba this summer.