Lionel Messi: Barcelona plan to extend Skipper’s Nou Camp stay with a new long-term contract

Barcelona plan to extend Lionel Messi’s stay by providing a new long-term contract.

Barcelona are readying a new contract to keep Lionel Messi for four more years. The Argentine’s contract culminates in 2021, with an excessive option for a year, but the club’s president Josep Bartomeu is taking nil risks in this case.

Should both the parties come to an agreement, this would be the tenth contract since signing his first professional contract in 2004. Barcelona’s president will lead the negotiations with his father, Jorge, who is acting as Messi’s agent.

There’s an excessive option in the contract, but the board wants to keep him until 36 in Catalonia, as per ESPNFC. Bartomeu is aware that Lionel Messi is not only looking at the financial terms, but wants a competitive squad to compete for Champions League – a trophy which they have not won since 2015.

Albeit being talks over a life-term contract, a new four-year contract would suffice for both the parties currently. The current release clause for the 32-year-old is 700 million, but that figure will come down as the day progresses.

Before agreeing to sign a new contract at Barcelona, there were rumours of him joining Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Nonetheless, those rumours have been put to bed with Messi guaranteeing that he’d end his playing career at Nou Camp itself.

Lionel Messi still has his say on the new contract, but the club believes there will be zero complications involved in this deal. Earlier this year, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba signed a new contract, with Rafinha leaving as a free agent this summer. Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal, and Luis Suarez’s contract expires in 2021, like Lionel Messi’s, but the club is yet to re-open negotiations with the trio.

There’s a huge possibility of witnessing a revamped squad in two years because the players, who were part of the Champions League triumph in 2015 enter into their mid 30’s.

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Lionel Messi is likely to play at a high level for numerous years to come and the new contract couldn’t have come at a better time.