Ronald Federico Araújo da Silva (born 7 March 1999) is a Uruguayan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

club

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and the Uruguay national team. He was nicknamed the Titan, because of his strength and speed.

Club career

Rentistas

Born to a Uruguayan father and a Brazilian mother in

Rivera Rivera () is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. The border with Brazil joins it with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, which is only a street away from it, at the north end of Route 5. Together, they form an urban area of aro ...

, a city near the Brazil border, Araújo joined Rentistas from hometown club Huracán de Rivera. He made his senior debut with the former on 24 September 2016, coming on as a late substitute in a 1–0

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

away win against

Tacuarembó Tacuarembó ( Guarani: ''Takuarembo'', literally: "Bamboo shoot") is the capital city of the Tacuarembó Department in north-central Uruguay. Location and geography The city is located on Km. 390 of Route 5, south-southwest of Rivera, the c ...

. Araújo scored his first senior goal on 9 December 2016, netting the equaliser in a 2–2 home draw against

Central Español Central Español Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Central Español is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. History The F.U.F era Together with Peñarol, Central founded FUF (Uruguayan football federation) in 1923 after being expel ...

. He became a regular starter during the 2017 season, and scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 3–2 away win over

Villa Española Villa Española is a ''barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) of Montevideo. Location This barrio shares borders with Mercado Modelo to the west, Pérez Castellanos to the northwest, Ituzaingó to the north, Flor de Maroñas to the northeast, Mar ...

on 17 June of that year.

Boston River

On 28 July 2017, Araújo joined Primera División side

Boston River Club Atlético Boston River, simply known as Boston River, is a Uruguayan sports club located in Montevideo. Founded on 20 February 1939, their main focus is on football, currently playing in the Uruguayan Primera División. At the futsal Futs ...

. He made his debut in the category on 18 September, replacing

Maximiliano Sigales Maximiliano Sigales Straneo (born 30 September 1993) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who last played as a forward for Mexican club Correcaminos UAT. Career Born in Maldonado, Sigales began playing professional football with local Ur ...

late into a 1–0 home success over

El Tanque Sisley El Tanque Sisley is a football (soccer), football club from Montevideo in Uruguay. They currently play in the Uruguayan Tercera División, Uruguayan 3rd Division. The club were founded in 1955 with the name ''Club Atlético El Tanque'', on Dece ...

Barcelona

On 29 August 2018, Araújo signed a five-year contract with

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

for a fee of

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1.7 million, plus €3.5 million in variables; he was initially assigned to the reserves in

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

. He made his first team – and

– debut on 6 October of the following year, coming off the bench to replace

Jean-Clair Todibo Jean-Clair Dimitri Roger Todibo (born 30 December 1999) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Nice and the France national team. Club career Toulouse Todibo joined the Toulouse in 2016, from FC Les Lil ...

in the 73rd minute of a 4–0 home win against

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

; however, he was sent off in the 86th minute for tackling

Javier Hernández Javier Hernández Balcázar (; born 1 June 1988), commonly known by the nickname Chicharito (, Mexican Spanish: ''little pea''), is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a striker for Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. He is known ...

. For the 2020–21 season, Araújo was promoted to the main squad, being handed the number 4 jersey, which was previously worn by

Ivan Rakitić Ivan Rakitić (; born 10 March 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a central or attacking midfielder for La Liga club Sevilla. Rakitić started his professional career at Basel and spent two seasons with them before he was s ...

. On 19 December 2020, he scored his first

goal for Barcelona in a 2–2 home draw against

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

. On 20 March 2022, Araújo scored his first goal in

El Clásico El Clásico or el clásico (; ca, El Clàssic, ; ) is the name given to any football match between rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions held in the Spanish championship, the term now includes every m ...

, heading in a corner from

Ousmane Dembélé Masour Ousmane Dembélé (born 15 May 1997) is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger for La Liga club Barcelona and the France national team. Dembélé began his career at Rennes before joining Borussia Dortmund in 2016. He ...

in a 4–0 away victory against the league leaders at Santiago Bernabéu.

International career

After representing

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

at under-18 and under-20 levels, Araújo received his first call up for the senior side on 5 October 2020, for two 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. He made his full international debut eight days later, starting in a 2–4 loss against the latter. In June 2021, Araújo was included in the final 26-man Uruguay squad for the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to 10 July 2021. The tour ...

in Brazil, but he didn't feature in any of Uruguay's five games in the tournament while also suffering a muscle injury. Despite nursing an injury, Araújo was included in the Uruguay squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, having expected recovery during knockout phase. He didn't made an appearance as Uruguay were eliminated in the group stage.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Barcelona *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Uruguay U20 *

South American Games The South American Games (also known as ODESUR Games; Spanish: ''Juegos Suramericanos''; Portuguese: ''Jogos Sul-Americanos''), formerly the Southern Cross Games (Spanish: ''Juegos Cruz del Sur'') is a regional multi-sport event held between nati ...

silver medal:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Individual * La Liga Team of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Araujo, Ronald 1999 births Living people People from Rivera Department Uruguayan footballers Association football defenders C.A. Rentistas players Boston River players FC Barcelona Atlètic players Uruguayan Primera División players Uruguayan Segunda División players Uruguay youth international footballers Uruguay under-20 international footballers Uruguay international footballers 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players South American Games silver medalists for Uruguay South American Games medalists in football Uruguayan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan people of Brazilian descent