Barcelona prepare to lose Head Scout with Premier League on the horizon | OneFootball

Barcelona aare on the hunt for a new head of their scouting department, with the incumbent Paulo Araujo set to depart the club after three years in the role. The Portuguese could be on the move to the Premier League.

Araujo, 55, arrived in 2022 to much surprise, with some pointing to his relatively short CV in the area. The Portuguese, who was previously in sports marketing, had just three years of experience that is known about, employed by Burnley between 2019 and 2022, despite being given the reins at the Catalan giants. Sport say that he will leave with plenty of affection, with Barcelona regarding him as an asset.

Araujo’s transition to a different scouting system

The Catalan daily say that there are those at the club who believe that more should have been done to hold onto Araujo. He is credited with resructuring the scouting system, and giving Barcelona’s talent spotters more freedom, while also modernising internal processes. Director of Football Deco, who recommended him for the role, is now tasked with his replacement. The Blaugrana have been linked with ex-West Ham United and Bayer Leverkusen man Tim Steidten in recent months.

Image via Sport

A return to the Premier League?

Sport go on to say that Araujo has plenty of options once he leaves Barcelona. That includes multiple offers in the Premier League, which no doubt bring with them lucrative contracts. Before joining Barcelona, Araujo also worked as a consultant in the United Kingdom.

Araujo thanks Barcelona

In a statement about his time about his time at the club, Araujo explained that his three years had felt like three days, before going on to thank those that gave him the opportunity.

Thank you to the President Joan Laporta for giving me the opportunity to lead the scouting department at challenging times for the club, when the always pressure to win was married to the well known difficulties of the financial fair play.

But even with these difficulties, under the tremendous leadership of the president, we were still able, during my 3 full seasons at the club, to win 2 La Liga titles, 2 Supercopas of Spain, 1 Copa del Rey and reach the semi-final of the Champions League.

Also, many thanks to my friend of long time, Deco, who had the courage to invite a guy that although with a long history in sports organisations, was relatively unknown in the football club’s world.

I have worked under the management of Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff and in the last two years with Deco and Bojan Krkić and I have to say that I have learnt a lot from these very experienced football professionals about the industry of football.

I am sure that Deco, with his leadership of the football department, taking advantage of his experience in the game at the highest level, but with his very perceptive and strategic vision of football management, with the support of everyone at the club, will lead the club to many more important wins for the Barcelonistas.