Barcelona are offering a new contract to star player Lionel Messi that will see him tied to the club until his 36th birthday, report Mundo Deportivo.
The Argentine’s contract at the Camp Nou expires in the summer of 2021 with this new deal set to add a concrete one-year extension plus the possibility of triggering a further year.
That would take the player’s contract in Catalonia up to 30 June 2023, which will be six days after he celebrates his 36th birthday.
Messi has a clause in his current deal at the club which would see him allowed to leave at the end of any given season should he so desire, but the deadline for exercising that this year has already passed.
There is an expectation that negotiations will be a lengthy process and there will need to be a series of details discussed over the course of next season to come to an agreement.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu together with CEO Óscar Grau will represent the club in the negotiations process and they will be dealing with Messi’s father Jorge.
It is claimed that Messi’s priority is not the length of the contract, but of retaining the clause that allows him to leave at the end of any given season should he wish to do so.
Messi, who celebrates his 33rd birthday next week, has spent the entirety of his professional career at the Camp Nou.
