Barcelona target rising Spanish centre-back to pair with Pau Cubarsi, but must sell €50m defender first | OneFootball

Despite the presence of a high number of centre-backs in the FC Barcelona squad, Inigo Martinez and Pau Cubarsi have been the clear starters for Hansi Flick this season.

Eric Garcia has been more of a rotation player for the entirety of the season, Ronald Araujo spent a significant part of the campaign on the sidelines and is now the third-choice centre-back, while Andreas Christensen has been unable to get rid of his injuries and played only 26 minutes, in the very first game of the season.

As a result, some changes in this part of the team are expected to take place next summer, and according to Fichajes, one such change will be the arrival of the Bournemouth centre-back Dean Huijsen, who would arrive only after the sale of Ronald Araujo.

The report claims that Barcelona believe Huijsen is an ideal player for their team, as he can be a long-term partner for Pau Cubarsi.

However, his transfer fee is set at €60 million, which means the Blaugranes will have to generate a significant amount of revenue before being able to land the Spaniard.

Big European clubs like Real Madrid and Chelsea have already expressed an interest in the Spanish defender, thus, the Catalans will have to ensure the sale of Araujo as soon as possible to start the operation for Huijsen.

However, getting a club to pay a suitable amount for a defender as good as the €50 million-rated Uruguayan will not be easy, even though Manchester United have showed interest in him.

With the way things have gone this season, Araujo is no longer an untouchable part of the Barcelona team, and thus his departure is not entirely unforeseeable. But it remains to be seen how the two operations develop in the coming months, but there is no doubt Huijsen will be quite an interesting addition to this Blaugrana squad.