Barcelona’s star Argentinian striker Lionel Messi has pledged to stay with the Spanish giants until June 2018 by renewing his contract, the club says.
Currently leading the league by a huge nine points, Barcelona also have agreed contract renewals with Spain internationals and long-time club stalwarts Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez.
A statement from the club said an agreement had been agreed with Messi, 25, whose current contract expires in 2016, and that he would sign his new deal “in the coming weeks”.
Veteran defender and captain Puyol, 34, and midfielder Xavi, 32 – one of the heroes of Spain’s Euro victory this year – have each signed up to stay until 2016. Puyol’s current contract expires next year and Xavi’s in 2014.
“This news means that FC Barcelona has secured its ties with three of its most important players,” the club said in its statement.
Barcelona are 13 points clear of their fierce rivals, title holders Real Madrid, at the top of the Spanish league, and nine points ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid, whom they beat 4-1 last weekend.
The Catalan giants are unbeaten in the league this season with 15 wins and one draw.
“It is very satisfying for the board to extend a successful project by renewing Xavi, Puyol and Messi,” a spokesman for the club’s management Toni Freixa told a news conference.
“They are three basic pillars of the best Barcelona team in history. It was very necessary to keep our main elements tied to the club.”
Puyol – who like Messi and Xavi is a graduate of Barca’s cherished youth training academy – has soldiered on despite injuries that have forced him to spend weeks on the bench this year.
He missed taking part in Spain’s Euro 2012 victory for treatment to his right knee and later fractured his cheekbone at the start of this league season.
Messi – who has been at the club since 2004 – is the top scorer in the league with 25 goals so far this season, ahead of Atletico’s Radamel Falcao who has 17 and Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo on 14.
The Argentine recently broke Gerd Mueller’s 40-year record for the most goals in a calendar year.
Mueller scored 85 in 1972 and Messi has scored 90 so far this year, though there are claims that Godfrey Chitalu of Zambia and Zico of Brazil netted more.
Messi is also Barca’s highest ever scorer, having broken Cesar Rodriquez’s record from the 1950s.
The Argentinian is in the running for a fourth Ballon D’Or, world player-of-the-year award this year, alongside his Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta and his La Liga rival Ronaldo. The winner will be announced on January 7.
If Messi carries it off, he will be the only player to win four Ballon D’Ors, exceeding the triples of Barcelona’s Dutch hero Johann Cruyff, France’s Michel Platini and another Dutchman, Marco Van Basten.
Da Bum69
Roar Rookie
mazzachenkoooooooooooooo
Nik0
Roar Rookie
No Mazza, I don't deny it.... Every Premier League game is shown in Australia (and most of them live), with the other leagues, you mainly have to stream online to watch the game but a part from that, the Premier League style of play is very different from the Spanish or the Italian game.... A cold night, playing on a soggy snowy pitch, against a Stoke team filled with defenders looking to snap your leg, might not bring the best out of Messi :) But just in general, I would really like to see how Messi would go in the Premier League... Ronaldo did it! Messi has been surrounded with world class players for his entire career... Ronaldo had to play with Gary Neville (he'll never make a top 20 anywhere)... Maradona had a bunch of unknowns with him at Napoli.... Messi doesn't have to prove anything BUT... once again, it would be nice to see him in the Premier League :)
Punter
Guest
Oh this is my list not 442, they had RVP @ 5, Toure @ 8 & Rooney @ 11.
Punter
Guest
Muller was on the tip of my tongue & definitely deserve to be in that group. Falcoa is the best striker in the world, I'm a Porto fan, grandfather & he's been scoring for fun for years. Was disappointed when I found out he was Colombian not Portuguese. Was very surprised Villa Boas didn't bring from Porto 2 years ago, could have got him for $10-15M, now looking at $40-50M.
Bondy.
Guest
Punter, I'm suprised T Muller is not on the list from Bayern, Falcoa is very high in those standings. They have the top four in order at least . I think Andreas is a better player marginally over Xavi ,although the top two clearly standout.
Dasilva
Guest
I'll say barca looks good for a la liga ucl double. The biggest sign they are going to achieve this. They are comfortably in front of the la liga and will win it comfortably. This allows barca to rest players and manage themselves for the big knock out games. When barca are involved in a tense league battle. They failed in the semi finals either to inter Milan or chelsea
Punter
Guest
Ignoring the English 442 magazine who had Rooney at no 11 in the world, I don't think any of the top 10 players in the world play in the Premier League in England. 1. Messi 2. Ronaldo 3. Inesita 4. Xavi 5. Falcoa 6. Neymar 7. Ibramovich (spelling) 8.De Maria 9.Ozil 10 Robben RVP, Toure & Silva from the EPL, together with Alonso, Pirlo, Ribery, Synder are in the next group.
Mazzalenko
Guest
I'm calm mate I just can't stand it when poms don't give credit to someone whose surname ends in a vowel because to them unless the person has an anglo name then they are not champions and must be cheats etc and I dont subscribe to the theory he needs to go to EPL....as fair as I'm concerned there are other leagues that exist on earth but people in this country only think EPL exists and you cannot deny people who take even a general interest in this code in this country are like that Nik0 can you?
Bondy.
Guest
Dasilva , I agree somewhat about who's the best league is, its to difficult to asses you'd have to also take into consideration the top three too four clubs in the Seria A Juve, Roma, Inter, Milan : Bundesliga Bayern, Dortmund,Schalke. I think Real M @ Barca are the best team clubs in the world and only club politics stops their succses in europe as well.
dasilva
Guest
It would be great to see him in the EPL but then again it would be great to see him in the A-league. I think he will be a one club man. It's just really the idea that he has to prove himself there to be a great player is pretty offensive. There's no way you can prove that EPL is clearly a better league than La Liga. It's one of those debateable issue of who is the best league in the world. In any case La Liga is ahead in the club coefficient. Sure that's not the be all and end all of which country has the strongest league in the world but it doesnt' make logical sense that you can't be an all time great player in the La Liga
Bondy.
Guest
Leo what about the Mariners mate cant you hear me calling.
Nik0
Roar Rookie
Yeah we saw exactly what he did in the Champions League last season against Chelsea... Calm down buddy, it's not a comment against the La Liga, but in general, it would be great to have seen him in the Premier League.
Brian
Guest
2018 that a long-time before Barca are gonna be beaten. I mean 13 points clear La Liga in the bag I'd imagine they are already training for their annual make or break CL semi-final in April.
Mazzalenko
Guest
Serioulsy get your pro-pommy anti-eurpoe chip off your shoulder mate.....only a fricken pom will cry "prove himself in the EPL". The guy does not need to prove himself in England, he is the best player in the world...deal with it!!! Besides on 2 occasions he has helped defeat an English team in the CL final.....that's right the CL which is THE best standard of football anywhere in the world and that includes all three of the major leagues in Europe being EPL, La Liga and Serie A!
Jason Cave
Guest
Couldn't agree with you more. If Messi is the no.1 player in the game, then he has to prove himself by playing in the no.1 league competition in the world-the Barclays Premier League. And only 3 EPL clubs would be useful for Messi to ply his skills-Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United. Imagine how a Man U team would go when you have the likes of Rooney, Van Persie, Messi all in the one line-up. Sir Alex Ferguson would think all his Christmases had come at once.
q
Guest
Do you watch games? Messi still gets hacked, people underestimate his strength, doesn't go down easy.
Nik0
Roar Rookie
Puyol will progress into the Barca coaching department, good to see another one club player... very rare these days. I would have liked to see Messi on a freezing cold night at Stoke, with Huth hacking at his shins, just to see what type of player he really is... We've seen Cristiano Ronaldo in the premier league, would love to see how Messi would go.
Cappuccino
Roar Guru
Puyol will be 38 by the time his contract expires... Doesn't sound wise from Barca, particularly with his past injury problems.