Barcelona have signed Mexican defender Julian Araujo from Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy in a deal until 2026, both teams confirmed the news on Friday.
Barcelona couldn’t sign Julian Araujo on transfer deadline day because they were eighteen (18) seconds late in completing the documentation needed for the deal.
The Blaugrana side stated they would make an appeal on the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in order to register the Mexican.
Julian Araujo has penned a three-and-a-half-year-deal until the expiration of the 2025-26 footballing season, Barcelona have stated that the 21-year-old would join the Team B of the club.
The club based in Los Angeles will keep a sell-on percentage of the transfer amount if Julian Araujo is sold by Barcelona to another team.
Julian Araujo arrived in Spain on Thursday to start training with the Catalan club while he waits for a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to see whether he can feature in the main team of the Catalan Giants this season.
However, Barcelona did not put out any information on when the Mexican would be available to play for the team.
In spite of the uncertainty, Los Angeles Galaxy manager Greg Vanney told newsmen that the right-back won’t be sent back on loan to the five-times Major League Soccer Cup Champions.
“It’s not even a possibility. It’s a relatively complicated situation because the registration didn’t go through on the Barcelona side,” – Greg Vanney said
Greg Vanney further stated: “So he is a Barcelona player. There’s not a loan possibility that’s even there. So he’s a Barcelona player and he will go there and start to train, get acclimated, start to get used to their environment and start to move forward.”
Araujo’s move to LA Galaxy in 2019
The Mexican defender moved to LA Galaxy in March 2019, and he has scored on two (2) different occasions and made twenty (20) assists in one-hundred-and-eight games in all competitions for the United States Of America side.
The 21-year-old was born in California, USA and he had the chance to feature for either the United States Of America or Mexico.
He played for the cadet teams of the United States Of America and made his debut for the USA senior national men’s team in December, 2020 in a match against El Salvador.
However, Araujo asked FIFA to approve his change of allegiance to the Mexican National team where he made his first appearance in December in a friendly encounter which ended in a 2-2 draw against Chile.
He has gone on to make three (3) appearances for the Tricolor of Mexico.
Julian Araujo leaves Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy in a club record transfer fee for a reported four (4) million dollars.
Araujo’s head coach at Greg Vanney said: βJulian joining FC Barcelona is a great story of a young kid from Southern California coming into the LA Galaxy Academy, through LA Galaxy II and excelling with the first team.”
“As we continue to evolve as a club, weβre leaning heavily into the LA Galaxy Academy development side. We are going to help develop players who can play at the biggest clubs in the world, but can also help the LA Galaxy win championships. We wish JuliΓ‘n all the best in the next phase of his career.”
Julian Araujo speaking about his desire to move to Europe
The new signing for the Blaugrana side has also spoken in the past about his desire to move to the European continent in order to strut his stuff:
Julian Araujo said: βI definitely want to go to Europe. Itβs my dream. My goal is to go to Europe. I want to reach my highest potential and I feel like going to Europe is going to help me do that. β
βIβm someone that wants to learn everyday, someone that takes advice from everybody, that wants to learn. I know, like I said, to reach my highest potential I need to go play in the best, the top leagues.β
And the dreams of the vibrant youngster has come to pass, it’s now time for the young man to give quality performances that would endear him to the manager and would give him a possible starting shirt next campaign.
