Barcelona Move for LA Galaxy’s Julian Araujo May be Foiled by 18-second Delay

Barcelona missed out on signing Mexican right back Julian Araujo because it was 18 seconds late turning in his transfer documentation.

Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany said Wednesday that a “system error” caused the club to miss the midnight deadline at the end of the transfer window Tuesday.

Alemany said the club was talking to FIFA to see if the transfer could still be completed.

The 21-year-old Araujo was born in the United States and would transfer from the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer.

Alemany said the club planned to bring Araujo to be initially used at Barcelona’s “B” squad.

Still struggling to comply with the Spanish league’s strict financial fair-play rules, Barcelona did not make any additions to its squad at the transfer window, but it was able to give young star Gavi a first-team contract.

The Catalan club cleared some salary cap room with the retirement of veteran defender Gerard Pique and the departures of forward Memphis Depay to Atletico Madrid and defender Hector Bellerin to Sporting Lisbon.

“He’s a player who was coming to join Barca Atletic, there was a bit of confusion in that sense,” Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany told Movistar on Wednesday.

“Basically we didn’t get there in time because of a computer error, we’re trying to clarify what caused it, and it’s likely it was the system that caused it.

“As it’s 18 seconds, I don’t know what FIFA will do.”

As well as Bellerin’s departure, Barcelona sold forward Memphis Depay to Atletico Madrid in January.

French side Paris Saint-Germain also had a deadline-day loan move fall through for Chelsea midfielder Hakim Ziyech, after the London side did not send the required documents in time.

Barcelona lead La Liga on 50 points, eight ahead of Real Madrid, who have played a game less.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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