Ronald Araujo: The good, the bad and the ugly behind Barcelona’s biggest dilemma | OneFootball

At Stamford Bridge, with the captain’s armband on his sleeve and Barcelona desperately trying to survive Chelsea’s suffocating press, Ronald Araujo made a horrendous decision that he will see in his sleep for years to come.

A mistimed step, a poorly judged lunge, and a second yellow card in a matter of minutes, and once again he left his team to chase a Champions League night with 10 men.

For many Culers, it did not feel like an isolated error. It felt like the moment when years of faith and protective instinct finally met hard reality. The centre-back’s Champions League mistakes had reached the ‘final straw on the camel’s back’ moment for Barcelona.

And so, a question that would have sounded sacrilegious not long ago now hangs over the club: in the long run, is it better to keep building around Araujo, or to cash in on him despite his stock being at its lowest?

The player Barcelona thought they were building around

For most of his initial years in the first team, the story of Ronald Araujo was simple: he was the defender Barcelona had been begging for since Carles Puyol hung up his boots.

Fast, aggressive, dominant in the air and fearless in duels, he grew from a raw kid from Boston River into the man Xavi labelled “the present and future of Barcelona” and “one of the best centre-backs in the world”.

Even rivals have admitted as much. Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr. named the 26-year-old as the footballer who defended him the best and described him as “very good and very strong”.

Araujo was seen as the heir to Carles Puyol. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

That reputation, plus his attitude, was what pushed the defender into a captaincy role at the club. He even became the first captain this past summer when Marc-Andre ter Stegen was temporarily removed from the role amid a dispute.

Slowly yet surely, the South American established himself as one of the faces of the dressing room.

Contract, age and the ‘cornerstone’ profile

Back in January 2025, Barcelona doubled down on their belief in Araujo, tying him to a new contract until 2031 and pushing his release clause up to the now-standard billion euro figure, even though a lower clause applied quietly for a short period during the summer.

At 26, on a long deal, with a wage package that reflects his supposed squad status, everything about the situation cries “cornerstone”. That is exactly why this spiral feels so damaging now.

The European trauma: three seasons, three big scars

Araujo’s high-profile debacles in the Champions League are fresh in everyone’s memories, but the first signs of something wrong came in 2022, when Eintracht Frankfurt turned the Spotify Camp Nou into a white wall and sent Xavi Hernandez’s side out of the Europa League.

On that night, it was a collective collapse rather than an individual horror show, but the 26-year-old defender’s words afterwards, calling the elimination a failure, revealed how deeply he felt responsibility for it.

Two years later, against PSG, the spotlight narrowed. Barcelona were leading 4-2 on aggregate, 1-0 up on the night and seemingly in control when the centre-back was sent off for a last-man foul on Bradley Barcola.

The red card vs PSG cost Barcelona a spot in the CL semi-finals. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Eventually, the Parisians scored four, Barça lost their composure, and a quarter-final that had felt wrapped up suddenly turned into another post-mortem.

After the game, Xavi remarked how the red card ‘changed everything’, but Araujo’s former teammate Ilkay Gundogan was even more scathing, claiming on live television that keeping 11 players on the pitch was more important than conceding a goal.

The implication was clear: the defender’s judgement had betrayed his team at the biggest stage. This was the beginning of a free fall that still has not hit rock bottom.

What makes the Stamford Bridge debacle so hard to swallow is that it is not a standalone event.

Last season, in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Inter Milan, the Uruguayan came on and was part of a catastrophic defensive sequence that directly cost Barcelona the tie.

And now, we come to Chelsea. A first yellow for arguing with the referee over someone else’s foul, then a second for diving into a duel he never needed to make, all but ended the Blaugrana’s hopes of a comeback from a 1-0 deficit.

Enzo Maresca’s side eventually dismantled the Catalans 3-0. The optics are brutal: your captain losing his head again in Europe.

A brain-fade moment vs Chelsea saw Araujo get sent off. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

From Montjuic to San Siro to Stamford Bridge, three of Barcelona’s most painful European nights in the last three seasons have shared an uncomfortable common thread.

This is why the conversation around Araujo, once seen as the defensive leader, has shifted from “how do we build around him?” to “can we trust him when it matters most?”

Market reality: from nine-figure rumours to selling when the chips are down

A year or two ago, the equation was simple. If Barcelona needed one blockbuster sale to solve their financial troubles, Araujo was one of the names you would bet your house on.

Two years ago, Bayern Munich were interested in signing him, and the Catalans even slapped a price tag of around €100 million on the player. Back in January, before he signed a new deal, Juventus were keen on bringing him in and even saw a bid rejected.

That price tag, however, belongs to the past. Since his high-profile errors on the biggest stages, there are doubts about his decision-making in crunch situations. Clubs still see the immense talent he possesses, but also see an unwanted pattern strong enough to deter interest.

If Barcelona look to sell him right now, they would not be cashing in anywhere close to those nine-figure fees once quoted. Instead, they would likely be offered a fee closer to his current market value of €35 million (via Transfermarkt).

Selling the 26-year-old in the summer of 2026 would not feel like a carefully timed masterstroke; it would feel like negotiating from a position of weakness, and that is never ideal.

The case for keeping him

On his day, Araujo can stop the best of the best. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

Strip away the emotion of PSG, Inter and Chelsea, and the basic scouting report does not change: there are very few defenders on the planet who can do what Araujo does physically.

Barcelona play a high line, often leaving their centre-backs with acres of space to defend, and there are nights when his recovery pace can come in clutch.

The La Liga champions also have the perfect complement to him in Pau Cubarsi. He is a calm, ball-playing prodigy whose weaknesses are exactly where the Uruguayan’s strengths lie.

In theory, they are an ideal foil for one another and have the potential to form a title-winning partnership.

There is also a human argument. The 26-year-old is still relatively young for a centre-back, and many of his worst moments are down to impulse rather than ability.

The chaos, stepping when he should hold, grabbing when he should jockey, sliding when he should be standing, arguing when he should walk away, can be coached out.

If Barcelona cut ties right now, there is a real chance they would watch him lift the Champions League somewhere else in a few years’ time, with those rough edges finally smoothed out.

The case for selling him

The harshest reading is also the simplest: big European nights keep asking the same question of Araujo, and he keeps giving the wrong answer.

PSG, Inter, Chelsea – two different coaches, two different systems, and yet the same feeling: when the temperature rises, his decision-making falls apart.

For a club desperate to return to the big leagues and bring the Champions League back to Camp Nou after a decade, this is not a small detail. It is the entire job.

Araujo has cost Barcelona on the big nights. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

In Pau Cubarsi, Barcelona already have a defensive leader, and with the admirable way Eric Garcia has stepped up, the club might be better off letting the centre-back leave, making a clean break and replacing him with someone more reliable.

So… what should Barcelona do?

The red card at Stamford Bridge feels like the last straw for a lot of fans, and you can understand why. Three seasons, three European traumas, and Araujo at the epicentre of it all, there seems to be no way back.

The South American was supposed to be the defender who ended Barcelona’s European chaos. Instead, he has become a symbol of it.

However, decisions at this level cannot be made from the away end of Stamford Bridge. Barcelona have to judge their captain not just by the sum of his European nightmares, but by what he is and what he can still become.

Right now, the sensible solution lies somewhere in the middle. Putting him on the market while he is in this form is not wise, but you do not slam the door if someone arrives with a reasonable offer.

If he stays, he has to rebuild trust with actions, not words. If he goes, Barcelona must replace him with the right profile.

Perhaps the real last straw in all this is not the Chelsea red card itself, but the moment when Barcelona decide whether the Uruguayan is a problem to be sold or a player to be helped. How they answer that will go a long way in shaping their immediate future.