Pedri signs new deal with Barca
BARCELONA: Barcelona midfielder Pedri signed a new contract through 2026 on Friday, with the club hoping the teenager can help it recover from the traumatic departure of Lionel Messi. His salary was not made public but Barcelona president Joan Laporta thanked Pedri for making “an effort” to reach an agreement that the cashstrapped club could afford.
In a sign of the expectations Barcelona placed on Pedri, his contract includes a release clause of €1 billion, the highest in club history. Barcelona’s director of football, Mateu Alemany, said Pedri’s release clause “means he will be off the market for several years.”
Pedri has been one of the very few bright spots for Barcelona over the past year, during which a president has resigned and its debt has skyrocketed. Barcelona had to let Messi walk away when they could not pay his wages. Painful losses on the field have followed. “My desire was to remain here for many years,” the 18-year-old Pedri said after signing. “It is true that we are going through a difficult moment, but we are the greatest club in the world and we are going to work this out.”
Pedri signed for Barcelona in 2019 from Las Palmas, a seconddivision club on his native Canary Islands. The transfer fee of €5 million proved a steal. At Barcelona, Pedri quickly convinced coach Ronald Koeman that he should be his central playmaker in a similar role to former great Andrés Iniesta.
Sterling ‘open’ to leaving
LONDON: Raheem Sterling admitted he “would be open” to moving away from Manchester City to get more game time with even a switch to an overseas club high on his wishlist. The 26-yearold England international has been with the Premier League champions since 2015 when he moved from Liverpool. However, he has made just two Premier League starts this season under Pep Guardiola. Speaking at the FT Business of Sport US Summit, Sterling said: “If there was the opportunity to go somewhere else (for more game time), I would be open to it at this moment in time.
“As I said, football is the most important thing to me—challenges that I have set myself from a young age and dreams as well, to play abroad.”