Ronald Araujo to join Liverpool on season-long loan from Barcelona | OneFootball

Ronald Araujo will spend the season at Liverpool on loan from Barcelona. Andoni Iraola, Liverpool’s new head coach, asked for the Uruguayan centre-back amid defensive issues.

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, the deal is agreed and only awaits the 27-year-old travelling to Liverpool on Saturday, rather than to Udine where Barcelona face Udinese and Nottingham Forest in a triangular. The agreement was reached with the approval of Hansi Flick and sporting director Deco.

Liverpool will cover Araujo’s full salary and hold an option to buy at season’s end. He will fill the gap left by Ibrahima Konaté’s free move to Real Madrid and line up alongside Virgil van Dijk.

Araujo returned from the World Cup with an injury but is now fit after steadily increasing his training. He is not viewed as first choice by Flick, who has Pau Cubarsí and Gerard Martín as his preferred pairing, plus Eric Garcia, a now-fit Andreas Christensen and academy product Álvaro Cortés, whose chances have improved.

Last season he played the fewest games of Barcelona’s defenders apart from Christensen. He missed more than two months for mental rest after being sent off in the first half against Chelsea in a 3-0 defeat.

Even so, he scored four goals. Three delivered wins, a last-minute strike against Girona for 2-1, a header versus Rayo for 1-0 and a Copa goal at Albacete in a 2-1 victory.

His exit also leaves another vacancy in Barcelona’s captaincy hierarchy, with Marc-André ter Stegen departing on loan to Ajax and Robert Lewandowski moving to the United States.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo

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