Liverpool have a buy option worth €55m [£47m], which they could activate for loan signing Ronald Araujo.
Fabrizio Romano corrected his prior update on the matter, having previously informed his followers that the Reds didn’t have a buy option included in the deal taking the centre-back out of Barcelona.
The Uruguayan has started all but two of the Merseysiders’ first five games (across all competitions) this term.
The Italian transfer news expert exclusively informed CaughtOffside: “Many of you asking me about his situation in terms of future, in terms of contract. I wanted to clarify something. I was mentioning on a podcast that he didn’t have a buy option clause.
“So, Liverpool didn’t have a buy option clause in the deal. That’s not the case. As I told you in the summer, it was just my mistake. I told you in the summer and I can confirm that my information I broke in August. I think it was there is a buy option clause for Liverpool and it’s worth €55 million. So that’s the buy option close for Liverpool.
“So if Liverpool want to keep Araujo, they know the condition of the deal.”
So there you have it; Liverpool can sign Araujo from Barcelona between now and the end of his loan spell at Anfield.
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And while those at the Camp Nou, and perhaps many more neutrals, might be keen to highlight the potential drawbacks of such a deal based on the footballer’s prior struggles in Spain, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Even if we ignore the fact that this is clearly a player Liverpool have had their eye on for some time, it’s worth noting that, at one point, Ronald Araujo’s stock was so high Barcelona would only consider selling if an offer around the €100m [£85.5m] mark came in. According to ESPN, Bayern Munich were understood to be the main perpetrators in this potential transfer race. However, a concrete move, evidently, never materialised.
But if we’re to use that £85.5m figure as a reference point, Liverpool could effectively sign a top centre-back in European football for almost half the price of his reported peak value.
Following a summer window in which £85.5m would be enough to get you a player worth £47m in recent years gone by, there’s a potentially remarkable market opportunity we’ve got on our hands here.
And yes, naysayers would be correct to caution that it’s still early days for Araujo and his L4 career. Yes, there were more than a few signs that the Uruguay international looked a little uncomfortable at right-back in our 0-0 draw with Fulham at the weekend.
But he’s filled in pretty comfortably otherwise when required at right-back and looks a perfectly viable option at centre-back as and when either Virgil van Dijk or Jeremy Jacquet needs a break.
In games he’s started (all at right-back), the 27-year-old has averaged a rating of 7.16/10 (Fotmob) – cleanly ahead of Jeremie Frimpong’s average of 6.9/10 (Fotmob) for the two games he’s started in 2026/27.
An extremely small sample size, we grant you. But can anyone remember a loan signing having this much of a positive impact at Liverpool in the last decade? You’d have to roll back the years to Javier Mascherano (2006/07) and Nicolas Anelka (2001/02).
So, it’s fair to say that we haven’t had the most consistent record with loan additions of late. But Ronald Araujo appears to have bucked the trend.
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