Manchester United ‘intensify’ interest in Barcelona star as contract stalemate continues | OneFootball

Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo has always maintained that he is content in Catalonia, but has refused to rule out a departure since January. The lack of movement in his contract talks, which have also been ongoing since February, suggest that a sale could be on the horizon.

The Blaugrana asked Araujo to accept a club-friendly deal in 2022, promising that he would be compensated during his next deal, but are again asking him to take a deal below market price this summer. With two years left on his deal, Barcelona will either want to tie down the Uruguayan or sell him for a good fee.

Bayern Munich were in talks with Araujo in January, but the departure of Thomas Tuchel has lessened the chances of that happening – however Manchester United continue to be interested. Sport publish on that they are ‘intensifying’ their pressure for a move, seeing as he is not renewing his deal. United are willing to double Araujo’s salary currently, and a price tag of ‘above €75m’ is mentioned too.

Given Barcelona’s finances, and the fact that they seem to have little interest in other players they would be willing to sell, and are open to moving on, Araujo’s exit may become a necessity for the Blaugrana next summer. Painful as it may be to lose arguably their best central defender, the move that makes economic sense is to sell him if they cannot offer a contract he will accept in the next two months.