Athletic Club Bilbao will extend the contract of veteran striker Aritz Aduriz until the rescheduled date of the Copa del Rey final, regardless of when it is played.
As outlined by Marca, the striker – who celebrated his 39th birthday in February – had initially planned to retire at the end of the 2019/20 campaign, and is intent on hanging up his boots when this season’s final is played.
Athletic will play Basque rivals Real Sociedad in this season’s showpiece in Seville but the match has been postponed due to the indefinite suspension of football within Spain following the coronavirus pandemic.
The game had originally been scheduled to take place on 18 April but the rescheduled date is now completely unknown, with an intention on all sides to only play the fixture when it is deemed safe for fans to attend the match.
Aduriz is quoted as telling Movistar+: “First, you have to solve many other things that are more important.”
The striker has never the trophy in his career but was in Athletic’s squad for the 2015 final defeat to Barcelona, but his one piece of silverware came months later as the Basque side defeated the Blaugrana in the Spanish Supercopa.
Athletic have won 23 Copa del Rey titles but none since 1984.
