Why Julián Araujo Could Be the Starting Right Back for Mexico in the World Cup

With fewer than four months until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off at Estadio Azteca, Mexico head coach Javier Aguirre is using a demanding slate of friendlies against Iceland, Portugal, Belgium, Ghana, Australia, and Serbia to settle on his strongest starting lineup. One position still up for grabs is right back, and while Jorge Sánchez entered the summer as the presumed incumbent, the door has swung back open for 23-year-old Julián Araujo.

Araujo’s path to a potential World Cup start has been anything but linear. After breaking into Major League Soccer with the LA Galaxy—109 appearances, two goals, 14 assists and back-to-back All-Star nods—the California-born defender earned a dream move to FC Barcelona in 2023. He never appeared for the first team and was instead loaned to Las Palmas, where he logged 28 La Liga matches and two goals in 2023-24. Bournemouth bought him on a five-year deal last summer, but a hamstring injury in November limited him to 13 appearances and 501 minutes in the Premier League.

Desperate for minutes, Araujo secured a loan to Celtic on January 2 and was immediately inserted into the Scottish Premiership cauldron. He featured in eight consecutive league fixtures, providing energy and attacking thrust down the right, and on February 15 he etched his name into Celtic folklore, lashing a last-gasp winner against Kilmarnock with his weaker right foot. The goal, celebrated shoulder-to-shoulder with jubilant supporters inside Parkhead, offered a glimpse of the confidence Aguirre hopes to harness.

For El Tri, Araujo’s national-team résumé already includes 16 caps and Gold Cup triumphs in 2023 and 2025, yet he has never nailed down a starting role. He started twice during last summer’s Gold Cup—against Saudi Arabia and Honduras—but watched Jorge Sánchez reclaim the spot for the final versus the United States. Since then, Sánchez has made only two appearances for new club PAOK, while Araujo has played every week in Glasgow.

Aguirre’s recent experiments—Reyes, Ledezma, even Rodrigo Huescas—have yet to produce a clear-cut answer at right back. If Araujo can maintain his Celtic form through Old Firm clashes, a Scottish Cup quarter-final, and the remainder of the Premiership run-in, the former U.S. youth international who switched to Mexico in 2021 may finally secure the consistent club platform that has eluded him since leaving MLS. Should that happen, the starting right-back job for Mexico’s World Cup opener against South Africa on June 11 could be his to lose.