Rosell confident of new Iniesta contract
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E-mail Xinhua, October 8, 2013
FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell on Tuesday assured fans that Spain international midfielder Andres Iniesta will agree a new contract to keep him at the club until the end of his career.
Speaking on radio station, Cadena Ser, Rosell was convinced that the 29 year-old whose contract expires at the end of June 2015, would pen an deal to see him end his playing days at the club he joined at the age of eight.
If Iniesta fails to renew his contract this season, Barca will have to decide whether or not to sell him next summer or risk seeing him leave for nothing the following year when his contract expires, but Rosell doesn't think the player will leave.
"Iniesta will end his career with Barcelona. If I had to bet on it happening I would do so," he said.
However, the creative midfielder, who scored the winning goal in the 2012 World Cup final won't be the best-paid player at Barca and will have to settle for the second best.
"We think he should be the person who is behind Leo Messi in terms of salary," said Rosell
Rosell, also discussed how the club had signed Brazilian striker, Neymar, who has begun to make an impact since arriving at the club in the summer.
The Barca president, said he had met Neymar's father in Miami and that the transfer fee had been 57 million euros.
"The key was that Neymar wanted to come to Barca, it wasn't a question of negotiating, he wanted to be with Messi and company. It was all based on that even though he had offers from Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid," said Rosell, who described the youngster as "humble, friendly, a great team-mate and a great footballer."
Regarding the signing of coach, Tata Martino, who replaced Tito Vilanova with the pre-season already underway when Vilanova decided to step down in order to continue his cancer treatment, Rosell said the club had thought about the Argentinean when Vilanova had travelled to New York for treatment in November 2012, however he added that his knowledge of Martino went back to when Martino had worked in Paraguay.
Under Martino's guidance, although there have been debates about whether or not Barca have changed their style, Barca have enjoyed their best ever start to a season, winning their first 10 matches of the campaign.
"I never had doubts, there are comments every week and we have to get used to it. I know it all forms part of the world we live in an there are people who have to speak about something every day."
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