The situation involving the transfer of defender Julian Araujo to Barcelona remains mired in confusion, with the LaLiga club appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to get the player registered.
Meanwhile, LA Galaxy manager Greg Vanney told ESPN that the organization remains in discussions with the defender about possibly being loaned back, though there are multiple obstacles that stand in the way.
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The saga was thought to be over last week. On Jan. 31, the two teams agreed to a deal to transfer Araujo to Barca for $4 million, and play for the reserve team.
But Barcelona filed the paperwork 18 seconds after the deadline due to what it said was a computer error. FIFA denied the Blaugrana's subsequent appeal.
That was thought to be the end of the matter, but Barcelona remains determined to bring Araujo on board.
The club's director of football, Mateu Alemany, said at a news conference on Thursday that the club has filed an appeal with the CAS.
"We wanted him for the second team. We want him and we'll look for a solution, via the Court of Arbitration for Sport or he can play in another team for five months and then join us."
In an interview with ESPN, Vanney was unequivocal in confirming that Araujo is indeed a Barcelona player.
"The transfer of Julian to Barcelona went through. That was all executed upon," he said. "The transfer wasn't contingent upon registration or anything like that. So he's their player. Unfortunately, for the 18 seconds, he did not get registered in time."
He added, "None of us wanted the situation where Julian was caught in between. That was a process of the registration on their side, not happening in a timely manner."
Vanney said it's possible that Araujo could be loaned back to the Galaxy, but MLS's roster rules make that difficult.
Araujo was signed to a contract in the summer of 2021 via the league's U22 initiative, which allows players under the age of 22 to take up a reduced hit on the team's league-mandated salary budget. If Araujo departs, the Galaxy's desire is to find a replacement using the same U22 mechanism. Vanney added that if Araujo is loaned back, the Galaxy wouldn't officially receive the funds from the transfer fee because Araujo would still be in MLS.
The club is under a transfer ban this summer due to violating MLS roster rules back in 2019. Another penalty from that incident reduced the amount of cap space the Galaxy has to work with. All of this would make it difficult to find a replacement.
"There are some tricky pieces to this," said Vanney "We have to continue to consider ourselves in moving forward. At the same time, we want to be able to help Jules out and give him the best opportunity to keep moving forward as well."
Araujo could simply train with Barcelona for the next five months and get used to his new surroundings. Or he could be loaned elsewhere. But Araujo must play the waiting game until this is resolved one way or another.
"[Araujo is] impatient, but understands that there's a process," Vanney said. "He doesn't want to be missing days of training. He wants to be playing games, and he just wants resolution."