Barcelona will host Rayo Vallecano tonight at the Olympic Stadium of Luis Companys, in a match for the twenty-fourth round of La Liga.
Barcelona aims to win against the Madrid team to climb to the top of the La Liga table, after the leaders and runners-up, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, stumbled by drawing with Osasuna and Celta Vigo, with a goal each, respectively.
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The Spanish club is repeating the strategy it implemented with former player Ousmane Dembele, now applying it with current defender Ronald Araujo, according to the Spanish newspaper “Sport”.
Barcelona has tied Araujo to a new contract until June 2031, with a release clause that allows him to leave the club next summer for 65 million euros.
If Araujo stays beyond the next summer transfer window, the clause will increase to 80 million euros starting in January 2026. This means that the Catalan club wants to give the player more freedom to decide his future, despite the contract renewal.
Barcelona does not want to risk losing the player for free, so it has decided to secure itself with a significant sum of money, in case the player decides to leave using the release clause. This strategy was first implemented by the club with Dembele, who left for Paris Saint-Germain using the release clause.
“Sport” explained that Barcelona included this clause in agreement with Araujo, who decided to continue with the club, but without closing the door to a potential departure if he wishes to change his destination later.
