Mascherano renews his contract with FC Barcelona until 2016
Barça’s Argentine star is hugely grateful to the Catalan club for extending his contract until June 30, 2016. Mascherano will be 32 years old when his contract ends and feels that seeing out his career as a Barça player is in his own hands. “It depends on me and how I perform as a footballer” he said. The buyout clause has been raised to 100 million euros.
Barcelona (FCB).- Javier Mascherano has renewed his contract with FC Barcelona until June 30, 2016. The buyout clause has been raised to 100 million euros. He signed the papers at Tuesday noon in FC Barcelona’s offices, in the presence of his agent, as well as the Catalan club’s president Sandro Rosell, vice president for sport Josep Maria Bartomeu and director of football Andoni Zubizarreta.
Happy to stay
The Argentine midfielder, who has also done a fantastic job in defence since joining FC Barcelona, said afterwards that “I am very happy that a club as big as this has offered to extend my contract and I can feel relaxed that as long as I do things well, I can stay here for many more years”. Mascherano isn’t thinking of his retirement quite yet, but when his new contract ends he’ll be 32. Ending his playing days in a Barcelona shirt now, he says “depends on me and how I perform as a footballer”.
Optimism for next season
Mascherano says that regarding the season that is just starting, “we have high hopes. We’re working very hard.” As for the presence of a new manager in Tito Vilanova, he observes that “the methods haven’t changed at all”. The team’s leader is now Tito Vilanova and Mascherano “will try to adapt his footballing tastes to the team, but the important thing is that in most ways, it will be much the same as ever”.