Lionel Messi Renews Contract With Barcelona Through 2018

Lionel Messi agreed a new contract with Barcelona that will keep the Argentine in the Spanish club until 2018.

“Walking through Rosario, Argentina, is a lot like walking through soccer legend, Lionel Messi's life”

Channel 3000

The deal extends a contract that was set to expire in 2016 by two more years, and the club said it would happen “en el transcurso de las próximas semanas”.

CNN

CNN en Español also says Messi, who is 25, has been in “sensacional forma” this year by scoring 90 goals for the club and his country to surpass the record set by Gerd Müller in 1972.

The same report says Barcelona also agreed verbally to new contracts with Xavi, extending his deal from 2014 to 2016, and with defender Carles Puyol, whose contract was expiring the next year, keeping him at the club until 2016.

Barcelona’s site quoted in the report frames the renewals as securing “sus relaciones con tres de sus jugadores más importantes”.

Channel 3000 describes Messi sending a message in Kansas City, saying that “Messi is still The Man 20 years after he first stepped into the World Cup limelight.”

The same account says Messi scored his first World Cup hat trick to move into a tie for first, joining Miroslav Klose with 16 goals across his World Cup career.

CNN en Español

It also says Messi became Argentina’s youngest-ever World Cup goal scorer and its oldest-ever World Cup goal scorer, and that when he was subbed off in the 79th minute he received a standing ovation from the Arrowhead Stadium crowd.

The narrative recounts a first attempt that was ruled offside, followed by a second goal that came after a through ball and a 20-yard screamer that deflected off keeper Luca Zidane’s fingertips.

The third goal is described as a laser low and into the corner of the net past Zidane, with Messi unmarked at the edge of the box as the Algerian defense wilted by the heat in Kansas City.

CNN says it visits World Cup champion Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario, Argentina, with Cecilia Dominguez showing where he grew up.

“(CNN) — Lionel Messi acordó un nuevo contrato con el Barcelona, lo que mantendrá al argentino en el club español hasta el 2018”

CNN en Español

The CNN en Español report links Messi’s Barcelona contract extension to his earlier move, saying that at the age of 11 he was diagnosed with a deficiencia de la hormona del crecimiento.

It adds that Messi’s city club Rosario, the Newell’s Old Boys, and River Plate in Buenos Aires were not prepared to provide money for treatment that “sumaba aproximadamente 1,000 dólares al mes”.

The report says Barcelona offered to pay the medical bills of a child who measured only 1.30 metros when he was ready to move to Spain, and that Messi confirmed the decision when he signed his first contract on the back of a servilleta.

CNN en Español also recounts that since his debut in 2003, Messi has collected three Ligas de Campeones de la UEFA and five campeonatos de la liga española, while the Channel 3000 account frames his World Cup moment as a continuation of his status in global soccer.