FC Barcelona ‘Unblock’ Ter Stegen Talks And Can Offer New Contract To Star ‘Keeper, Claims Report

Talks had broken down but now, according to a report from Catalonia, FC Barcelona can finally ‘unblock’ negotiations with Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and offer their goalkeeper the contract he deserves to keep him at the Camp Nou for the best half of the decade at least.

In desperate times brought on by the coroanvirus pandemic in which only he, Frenkie de Jong and Lionel Messi are off limits to rival clubs, the German had initially worried the club and its fans alike by refusing an offer that was made to him earlier in the year.

This action naturally put a string of top European outfits were put on alert, with Chelsea, Juventus and Bayern Munich chief among them. But now that Ter Stegen’s national teammate Manuel Neuer has in the past few days signed on the dotted line and extended terms until 2023, Barca can perhaps sleep easier over the fact that an approach from their 2013 and 2015 Champions League foes is now less likely.

Be that as it may, though, the hard facts are that Ter Stegen can walk on a free in 2022 and may negotiate with whomever he wishes as early as next year, in developments that would cause untold embarrassment for the Catalans were they ever to come to fruition.

Yet as Lluis Miguelsanz writes for regional daily newspaper SPORT on Friday morning, the shotstopper and his employers are ready to put their differences aside and perhaps reach an agreement as early as June.

Committing until 2025, more precise details on Ter Stegen’s new salary have not been divulged as of yet but what will be put forward to the 28-year-old should make him one of the team’s highest-earning players.

Recently constructing a house in Barcelona, as seen in 2019’s Matchday series, the player and his wife have also recently welcomed a baby son to their family and are settled in the city.

Committing his future to the La Liga holders never an issue, then, Ter Stegen was merely holding out for money that he felt reflected his importance in the team and while sensitive of the current economic climate, will, according to Miguelsanz, “begin to charge a little more than what he is receiving now” as his pay “progressively rises until 2025”.

Irreplaceable as one of the world’s best in the position, tying Ter Stegen down for the peak of his career is a major coup for FC Barcelona.