Barcelona”When I was a 13-year-old boy I was playing against veterans. Do you know what that means, in Uruguay? In our country, in an era without VAR or anything like that, everyone hits. And he was a child playing against adults. And he faced it,” explains Sergio Cabrera, one of Ronald Araujo’s first coaches. Uruguay, the smallest country to win the World Cup, lives for football. Being a small state, everyone knows each other, everyone seems like a big family. Cabrera, in fact, knows Barcelona well, since his son is the Lele Cabrera, the Espanyol player. When he visits the city, he tries to talk to Araujo, who he trained at Rentistas, when the Barcelona defender was a marque. “He was born to be a leader. He has always been like that. When he arrived at Rentistas he already stood out for his attitude, for his winning character. He listened carefully, he wanted to learn, he wanted to improve. Then he played in attack, but with us we went with him putting on defense. It worked,” he says.
Araujo once again demonstrated his leadership in San Sebastian. Defending firmly when he had to suffer in the first half and scoring the winning goal at the end. Afterwards, he criticized himself, aware that the team needs to improve. The Uruguayan ran to celebrate the goal with the displaced Barça fans, once again demonstrating his leadership. It took very little time for Barça to realize that a leader had arrived in 2018, just as another, Piqué, was gradually saying goodbye.
In the year of the pandemic, for example, Araujo asked to be able to help Barça B, where he had started the course, when he played the play-off promotion to Segona in Marbella. Other players from the subsidiary who were already in the dynamics of the first team, such as Riqui Puig, said no. He wanted to help and ended up crying when, in the final, the Blaugrana subsidiary lost to Sabadell by 2 to 1. In the play for the Harlequin promotion goal, the work of Nèstor Querol, he was injured when trying to save the ball on the line “On the return flight he was the most affected. He was on crutches and sat in wider seats, alone, angry. When he had a guaranteed future in the first team”, Francesc Xavier Garcia Pimienta, the coach, recalled a few months ago of that team, now at Las Palmas. pin he has only good words to say about it. On that return flight, which the Blaugrana subsidiary shared with players from their executioner, Sabadell, more than one Barça player laughed playing games online, listening to music. Others, like Araujo, were busy. “He is a born winner, he never wants to lose. We Uruguayans have always been a bit like that, but his case is surprising,” admits Cabrera. Inside that plane, the only one who was guaranteed to play in the Champions League in the future was him, and he was the one who hurt the most for not getting on.
Born on the border between Uruguay and Brazil
Born in Rivera, a town of 80,000 on the border between Uruguay and Brazil, Araujo was born with a ball under his arm. A watershed separates Uruguay from Brazil, but the people of Rivera often live on both sides of the border. In fact, the mother’s family is of Brazilian descent and he speaks Portuguese well. Such is the connection, that in Rivera was born Aldyr García Schlee, the Uruguayan writer and designer who went to make a life in Brazil in the 1950s, where he won the competition to design the yellow jersey of the Brazilian national team. Yes, a Uruguayan was the one who decided that Brazil would wear yellow, since they used to wear white.
Araujo loves Brazil and gets along well with the Brazilian players, but he was clear that he wanted to wear sky blue, with Uruguay. So, he started playing for Huracán de Rivera, the local club, where he made his debut with the first team when he was just 13 years old. In 2015, at the age of 16, he was discovered by Rentistas, with whom he played in the Second Division at the age of 17, until he jumped to Boston River, first team, in 2017. Barça would discover him at a World Cup under 20, when he was already captain of the national team celeste. Ramon Planes defended his signing, and it would cause some doubts, since few knew him then. He was still a defender of Boston River, a minor club in Uruguay. It seemed like a risky bet. It was a success.
Inside the dressing room, Araujo’s voice can already be heard. His mental fortitude is amazing. He is a very religious person, who prays before matches. When he’s done, he calls out to his teammates for attitude. Despite being still young, 24 years old, within the club they consider him to be an ideal example for the younger ones, so that they can do like him. His way of doing things is already that of a captain. Araujo, in fact, does not hide that he wants to end up being the first captain of Barça. “I consider myself a leader, I feel like an important player with character, beyond wearing the captain’s armband or not, I am a born leader and will continue like that”, he said this summer during the tour of the United States. Araujo has the ideas clares and wants to win everything, at Barça. In fact, he has turned down offers from British clubs, in recent years. He doesn’t even want to hear about leaving. He wants to stay for many years to help when needed, and celebrate when the good days.
Araujo scored Anoeta’s first goal in 10 months
Although he had started as a forward in his hometown, it had been a long time since he scored a goal. In fact, his last goal had been 10 months ago, in a hard-fought 3-4 win in Alicante against Intercity in the Copa del Rey. If he scored four goals in the 2021-22 season, the last few seasons between injuries and being more focused on defending have meant that he does not have as many goals as before. “He is a player who has attitude, very serious and who gives us a lot in attack, in specific plays. In addition, Xavi discovered that he could play as a winger and become the antidote to one of the best wingers in the world, Vinícius,” he said Marcelo Bielsa, the new Uruguayan coach, about the player, who now plays as a centre-back, now as a winger. He prefers to be positioned in the middle, but he has not stopped offering to play anywhere, if it helps the team. Whatever it takes to win, come on. Whether acting on the wing or going up to play as a striker, as in San Sebastià. Nothing scares him. When the Masia players, aged 13, were playing against children of their own age, he was already facing family parents and experienced veterans. It is made of a different paste.
2023-11-06 06:31:29
#anger #crutches #explains #leadership #pasta
