“I prefer to keep what I think to myself. There are values and dress codes that I think must be followed.” Thus, briefly and without stridency, Ronald Araujo answered Gündogan. Do not generate more controversy. “It’s not his style,” say those who know him. Instead, he did want to leave a message. “He did it with height,” the same sources emphasize.
On Tuesday night, Araujo couldn’t sleep. Nothing strange in a footballer, still with the adrenaline of the competition on his back. It was not just another day for the Uruguayan, Barcelona’s elimination in the Champions League quarterfinals against PSG had left him in the pillory: in the fans and in the locker room. He, in any case, didn’t know it yet. He ignored Ter Stegen’s words — “I don’t want to say it was a mistake, I wanted to go for the ball. If he whistles for a foul, he has to be expelled. And you can point out the foul against Araujo,” said the goalkeeper, “and also those of Gündogan. “If there was a foul it is red, that’s for sure. It’s hard to say, but in these crucial moments you have to be sure you’re going for the ball. I don’t know if he touches the ball or not. I prefer to give our goalkeeper the opportunity to save it or even concede a goal. But being one less so soon kills you in the game,” commented the former Manchester City player.
However, Araujo could not shake the blame after leaving his team with 10 players, sent off in the 29th minute after a foul on Barcola. He picked up the phone and wrote to his advisors. “It’s late, Ronald. Try to rest. Talk tomorrow”. But Araujo unburdened himself. “The football that gave me so much joy today has hit me hard. I am very sorry that I cannot give you this joy. We will try again,” he wrote in a draft.
On Wednesday morning, he appeared at the Ciudad Deportiva. The atmosphere, according to those present, was cordial. “It’s a united locker room,” they explain from the staff. The Barça group is divided between three: the foreigners (Gündogan, De Jong, Christensen, Lewandowski and Ter Stegen), the youngsters (Araujo, Balde, Pedri, Gavi, Fermín, Lamine, Cubarsí, Ferran Torres and João Félix) and those who They jump from one side to the other without problems (Raphinha, Cancelo, Iñigo Martínez, Romeu and Koundé). All united by a noble and silent captain like Sergi Roberto, who acts as a bridge, symbolized in his ability to speak interchangeably in English, Spanish and Catalan.
“The good relationship between the players, a group in which there is no clear leader and in which everyone feels important, was one of the keys to the recovery,” says one of those responsible for the sports management. At the end of Wednesday’s regenerative training, Araujo warned Barcelona’s press officers that he wanted to keep his agenda and appear in the nineteenth edition of the book Relats Solidaris which was held this Thursday. It was then that she spoke to her surroundings again to polish the message she had meditated on the night before. Then, Gündogan’s name appeared and his public analysis of the defeat, void of diplomacy. Araujo remained calm: “I thank all those who are unconditionally by my side, my teammates who left everything on the field and the fans who believed until the end. Força Barça, forever,” he added to his message. And she published it. His colleagues, led by Sergi Roberto, supported him.
Gündogan, however, said nothing. His wife did it. “This man is a guy who works hard, and his football opinions are about improving and he is giving everything for his team… his mentality is a triplet mentality,” the German’s partner published on social networks. social. “Gundo does not fully understand the context of Spain. In Manchester he could say the same thing and nothing would happen. Here everything is different,” they minimize the situation from those around the Uruguayan.
Araujo’s position, in any case, had already been made clear: “I didn’t like it, but I will talk to him privately.” This Thursday, Barcelona did not train. “It was already scheduled like this, but we had not published it,” they explain at the club. They will see each other this Friday. One of the group leaders explains his impression: “They are two good people who have different personalities. Nothing that cannot be solved in a locker room where there was always good vibes.” It should be an express solution, on Sunday Barcelona travels to the Santiago Bernabéu.
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