Barcelona Sign Real Madrid Youth Player Ariana Arias On Free Transfer

Per Maria Tikas of Diario SPORT, FC Barcelona have signed Real Madrid youth player Ariana Arias on a free transfer. The aim is for her to play with the youth team, but she will apparently do preseason with the main squad.

‘Ari,’ as she was affectionately known, had a strong reputation in Castilla and regularly scored at rates around a goal a game — last season, she netted 13 goals in 14 appearances.

This enabled her to get call ups to the senior side in 2019/20 and 2020/21, leading to a total of 277 minutes in the league. In 20/21, she scored two Primera Iberdrola goals.

However, Ari seemed to fall out of favor under Alberto Toril and the number of opportunities she had to play with the senior team dried up, with others like Carla Camacho and Paula Partido being preferred.

Madrid’s B team currently being in the third division will no doubt have also played a part in whatever motivations Arias had to make this move.

Only time will tell if the club made the right decision to let her go.