On 21 June 2015, at the Estadio de Gran Canaria, Sergio Ezequiel Araujo bundled in a loose ball from a wide free kick in the 84th minute of the second leg of the Spanish second division promotion playoff final. The 2-0 win over Real Zaragoza cancelled out the 3-1 first-leg defeat and, on away goals, returned UD Las Palmas to the top flight after thirteen years. That goal defined the career of the Argentine forward, born on 28 January 1992 and nicknamed «Chino», a centre-forward developed at Boca Juniors who went on to play for Barcelona B, Tigre, Las Palmas, AEK Athens and Cerro Porteño.
Youth career and debut at Boca Juniors
Araujo came through every youth level at Boca Juniors. Alfio Basile handed him his debut on 13 December 2009 in the Apertura, sending him on for Nicolás Gaitán in a 2-0 home defeat to Banfield at La Bombonera. His first professional goal came on 21 November 2010, in a 2-1 win over Arsenal de Sarandí. He made 24 appearances and scored 2 goals for Boca’s first team between 2009 and 2012, and was part of the squad that won the 2011 Apertura.
Barcelona B and Tigre
In the summer of 2012 he joined FC Barcelona’s reserve side on loan, then competing in the Spanish second division. In his only season at the Miniestadi he played 34 matches and scored 7 goals, including a brace in a 2-1 win away at Lugo on 1 December 2012. He returned to Boca in June 2013, but Tigre offered him the regular football he wanted and he joined the club from Victoria on loan for 2013-14, scoring 4 goals in 23 appearances.
In July 2014 he arrived at UD Las Palmas, again on loan from Boca. He settled quickly: he was named Segunda División Player of the Month for September 2014 and ended the campaign in the division’s Team of the Year. The season closed with the goal against Zaragoza that sealed promotion in 2015, and the Canary Islands club signed him permanently that summer. He made his La Liga debut on 22 August 2015 in a 1-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid, and scored his first top-flight goal on 13 September 2015 in a 3-3 draw with Celta de Vigo at Balaídos. Between 2014 and 2021 he played 150 matches for Las Palmas and scored 47 goals.
Three spells at AEK Athens
In January 2017 he moved to AEK Athens on loan. In Greece he scored in the big games: twice in a 3-0 win over PAOK, the opener in a 2-1 away win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the Greek Cup semi-final on 13 April 2017, and on 31 May 2017 the second goal in a 2-1 win over Panionios that earned the club a Champions League place. He returned to Athens on loan in August 2017. That season he scored his first goal in European competition on 23 November 2017, in a 2-2 draw with Rijeka; on 1 April 2018 he struck twice in a 3-0 derby win over Panathinaikos, and on 5 May 2018 he scored the only goal away at Apollon Smyrnis to clinch the 2017-18 Super League Greece, AEK’s first league title in 24 years.
After another spell at Las Palmas he rejoined AEK on loan in January 2020, and in July 2021 the Greek club completed his permanent transfer. On 6 February 2022 he marked his 100th appearance for the club with two goals in a 3-0 win over Apollon Smyrnis. In 2022-23 AEK won the Greek league and cup double, Araujo’s second league title in the country.
Argentina youth teams
With the under-17 side he finished runner-up at the 2009 South American Championship in Chile, scoring three goals in five matches. Later that year he played at the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria: he scored the winner against Honduras, got the decisive goal in a 2-1 victory over Germany and was on the scoresheet in the 3-2 round-of-16 defeat to Colombia. In 2011 he played for the under-20s at the South American Championship in Peru, where Argentina finished third, and at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara he scored in a 1-1 draw with Brazil. Argentina left that tournament with the silver medal after losing the final 1-0 to Mexico.
Cerro Porteño
On 13 September 2024 he signed for Cerro Porteño. The Paraguayan club registered him outside the regular transfer window through an emergency replacement clause, triggered by a player’s injury on duty with Paraguay’s under-20 team, and Araujo was given the number 21 shirt. With Cerro he won the 2025 Clausura of the Paraguayan Primera División.
Cerro PorteñoForwardMarket value €336.0K