Barcelona have a major decision to make for the future of their defence, with two players earmarked for one spot. While Pau Cubarsi is assured as one of their options for the years to come, the position of his long-term partner is up for grabs.
Andreas Christensen looks poised to leave the club, with just a year left on his deal and no sign of a new one, while Eric Garcia’s future is another point of debate looking ahead to the summer, having been close to leaving in the last two transfer windows. On the other hand, Inigo Martinez looks set to renew his deal for another year, and the veteran Basque centre-back will dispute the starting spot beside Cubarsi.
Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal have been included in @WhoScored’s La Liga team of the month for February. Congratulations! ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/xSYld96DXY
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) March 2, 2025
However Ronald Araujo’s future is less certain. The Uruguayan renewed his deal until 2031 in January, but has a €65m release clause in the first ten days of the transfer window. Adding more fuel to the fire, despite Araujo’s assurances that he wants to stay, is the fact that he has been unable to secure a starting spot since returning from injury.
Parallel to this, Barcelona have been in talks with Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah, who is out of contract at the end of the season and available on a free. The German international has reportedly chosen Barcelona as his preferred destination and in his native country the deal has been described as ‘a matter of time’.
Tah’s potential arrival has been taken as a sure sign that Araujo will move on this summer by some, but Cadena SER report that Barcelona would prefer to keep him rather than sign Tah. While this is not confirmation that this will happen, due to their financial situation and Araujo’s playing situation, but the sporting department at Barcelona do believe he is a better player than Tah.
