Madrid: Barcelona president Sandro Rosell assured fans on Tuesday that Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta will agree to a new contract which keeps him at the club until the end of his career.
Speaking on a local radio station, Rosell was convinced that the 29-year-old, whose contract expires at the end of June 2015, will pen a deal to see him end his playing days at the club he joined as an eight-year-old.
If Iniesta fails to renew his contract this season, Barca will have to decide whether or not to sell him next summer or risk seeing him leave the following year when his contract expires.
Rosell, however, doesn’t think the player will leave.
“Iniesta will end his career with Barcelona. If I had to bet on it happening, I would do so,” he said.
However, the creative midfielder, who scored the winning goal in the 2012 World Cup final won’t be the best-paid player at Barca and will have to settle for second.
“We think he should be the person who is behind Lionel Messi in terms of salary,” said Rosell
Rosell, also discussed how the club had signed Brazilian striker, Neymar, who has begun to make an impact since arriving at the club in the summer.
The Barca president, said he had met Neymar’s father in Miami and that the transfer fee had been 57 million euros.
“The key was that Neymar wanted to come to Barca, it wasn’t a question of negotiating.
“He wanted to be with Messi and company. It was all based on that even though he had offers from Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid,” said Rosell, who described the youngster as “humble, friendly, a great team mate and a great footballer.”
Regarding the signing of coach, Gerardo Martino, who replaced Tito Vilanova with the pre-season already underway when the latter stepped down in order to continue his cancer treatment, Rosell said the club had thought about the Argentine when Vilanova went to New York for treatment in November 2012. (IANS)
