Think about the Portuguese”, Guardiola told Carles Puyol in October 2001. The Santpedor midfielder and the La Pobla defender were teammates and Figo was going to return to the Camp Nou dressed in white when four months had not yet passed since his betrayal . Serra Ferrer, the coach, had not yet spoken to Puyol but Pep already sensed that he was going to be in charge of marking, as he was. No one has commented on Ronald Araújo (Rivera, 1999) this week: “Think of the Brazilian.” Nor does he need to do it. He is aware that Madrid is arriving and he has to dance with Vinícius jr.
It won’t be the last time he pairs up with the winger. Especially seeing the great performance that he has given in his duels. Because Barcelona has found a footballer capable of nullifying one of Madrid’s sources of danger, if not the biggest: Vinícius’s imbalance. “The coach uses me there against the wingers who are very good one-on-one. He is one of my virtues and that is why they put me in that position ”, reasons Araújo himself. “He is a world-class defender. I would say that he is one of the best central defenders in the world, ”explained Xavi.
Tomorrow it will be a year since the decision of the Egarense coach to transfer him to the right wing to keep an eye on the Brazilian striker. Since then, the blaugrana have won the three classics in which Araújo has neutralized Vinícius: 0-4, 1-3 and 0-1. With this tactical modification, the whites have only been able to score one goal against Barça and it was Benzema in the 90th minute of the Super Cup final while Araújo has barely been dribbled twice in 270 minutes. Instead, in October the Bernabéu match was lost and Barcelona lost 3-1. Today it will premiere in a classic at home.
Demoralized by crashing into a wall, Vinícius said goodbye to the band and played the last half hour of the Cup down the middle. After the game, a meme in which Araújo was seen holding a baby in his arms on a Christmas card went viral but they had replaced the offspring’s face with that of the Madrid winger. “Happy birthday, daddy,” the Brazilian wrote to the Uruguayan on Instagram on March 7, the day he turned 24.
The good vibes and admiration between the two is evident. The fact that Araújo, born on the border with Brazil, is able to communicate in Portuguese makes things easier, as is the fact that he is a friend of Valverde or that he protected the young Álvaro Rodríguez, both Uruguayans, in a moment of tension.
Noble and warrior – only 8 faults in the League – since January, when he returned from the injury that forced him to undergo surgery and miss the World Cup, he has become a fixture. Perhaps as a winger it is difficult for him to progress down the lane but Xavi insists that he is the footballer who has evolved the most with the ball in these 16 months with his coaching staff. There has been a lot of work with video. “With the images he can look at himself. The release of the ball is based on deciding and finding the third man. That’s why the video helps. He also sees room for improvement. He has tremendous involvement in what he does. It is very easy to train Ronald”, explains Xavi. In fact, when he arrived from the Boston River to Barça B, he spent several afternoons in what the players called “the bullring”, a ring that threw balls and indicated which area to pass to. He currently has an 89% success rate in deliveries, which drops to 80% in the opposite field.
Without the ball, he has no rival. “He is very strong, he is fast and he senses very well where the rival will be unmarked. He is a physical marvel, he likes to defend and he is a leader. He is aggressive in duels. Having Ronald in the team is a guarantee, an advantage”. Just as Ronaldinho imagined plays in bed like the Chilean against Villarreal, if it weren’t for the fact that Araújo started out as a center forward, it would be said that he has spent his life dreaming of clearances, tackles, interceptions and steals.
He has studied his opponents very well with videos, but the Uruguayan is a man of action and often says that if he wasn’t a footballer he would have liked to become a policeman. For pursuits, ordering traffic in his area, not letting anyone pass and putting handcuffs to slow down fast forwards is useful.
