Barcelona rejected two huge offers for star worth £77m from Champions League rival

Barcelona reportedly rejected two huge offer for one of their stars that would have helped to address their financial woes.

Barcelona find themselves in a difficult situation.

The club's poor financial health has been well-documented, but the historic standing and reputation of the Spanish giants brings an expectation of success regardless of off-field circumstances.

Barca's desire to remain competitive and fight for titles means every year they have to pull all kinds of money-raising moves in order to create enough salary cap space to register their key players and new signings to play.

With their wage limit for next season set at €200 million less than their current wage bill, Barcelona will have to offload some high earners if whoever replaces Xavi as manager is to make any new signings.

Frenkie de Jong is a player who is perennially linked with a move away from Catalonia; Barca were willing to let him join Manchester United in 2022 but the midfielder rejected the move.

One star club bosses will not consider offloading is Ronald Araujo.

According to Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, in January Barca rejected two offers for the defender from Bayern Munich.

The report claims that the Bundesliga giants first tabled an offer of €70m directly with the player's agent, with an additional €20m in variable payments to take the total value of the offer to €90m (£77m).

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After the reigning LaLiga champions immediately rejected that approach, Bayern came back with another €90m offer, but this time with €80m guaranteed and €10m in variables.

The second offer was also batted away without consideration.

Bayern were so desperate to sign the 24-year-old that manager Thomas Tuchel - who has since announced that he will leave the club at the end of the season - phoned Araujo to try and convince him to join.

While Araujo is not one of Barcelona's top earners - various reports claim he is paid around £125,000 per week - selling him would go a long way to allowing the incoming manager to refresh the squad ahead of next season.

However, Barca view the defender as integral to their project and will not sell him under any circumstances.

Araujo's contract at the Camp Nou is valid until June 2026.

Topics: Barcelona, La Liga, Bayern Munich, Xavi, Champions League

Alex Brotherton

Alex Brotherton is a Sports Trends Writer at SPORTbible. He has previously worked with publications including the Manchester Evening News, GOAL and BBC Sport. He is a football fanatic, but also dabbles in tennis and American football. He enjoys running, cooking and watching non-league football.

@alex_brotherton