Marc-André ter Stegen's contract renewal with FC Barcelona is well on track. Talks between the player's agent and Deco in recent days have brought the deal very close to being finalised. The goalkeeper's willingness and Barça's Financial Fair Play needs have accelerated the process, although everything suggests the deal will not be made official until September.
This is now the starting point, but the club is keeping the option of bringing the agreement forward to the next few days to generate some financial fair play in the run-up to the close of the market. Ter Stegen is willing to defer his salary, which would mean that he would be paid less in the first two seasons and more in the last two.
The club is offering the German international a long-term contract in a gesture of maximum confidence after his key role in the last league championship. This makes three renewals with Barcelona since he arrived on 22 May 2014. He signed then for five years, until 2019. But before the end of his contractual relationship with Barça, in 2017 he signed his renewal until 2022 with a clause of 180 million.
It would not be his last renewal: on 20 October 2020, he extended his contract until 2025 with a clause of 500 million. In this case, with a temporary salary adjustment given the circumstances arising from the crisis caused by Covid.
Ter Stegen, who is 31 years old and Barça's second captain, will extend his link with Barcelona, a club where he arrived as an unknown quantity under Zubizarreta, and where he has become one of the best in the world.