Initial agreement on Iniesta's new deal

Posted Thursday, December 19, 2013 by Marca.com

Barcelona has reached an initial agreement with Spanish international Andres Iniesta to extend his contract with the club. The Catalan club believes a deal is now imminent.

The contract now hinges on small details and the club publicly announcing the deal. Both Iniesta and Barca president, Sandro Rosell said some days ago that negotiations were going according to plan.

The length of the player's contract could see him stay at the club until 2018. This was the biggest stumbling block, because the player wanted to extend his contract for a further five seasons, including the year he still has on his current deal which is up in June 2015.

Both parties have been working tirelessly during the past few days to tie up loose ends after negotiations dragged on longer than expected. For a while now, both Barca and the player's agent, Ramon Sostres have been keen to finalise a new deal before the Christmas break. There has been significant progress in recent weeks.

Should everything be confirmed, the midfielder would be 34 when he leaves Barcelona. The player's salary has been agreed and all that is left to do now is finalise the last details.

Barca has always counted on Iniesta's willingness to stay at the club. The club was always the midfielder's priority, despite interest from other top clubs, and he has never hidden his intention in remaining with the Catalan giants.