Sergio Busquets

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that the contract renewal of Barcelona midfielder and Spanish youth international Sergio Busquets (20), whose current contract expires next summer, will be closed in the coming days (read more here).

Barcelona president Joan Laporta is quoted as saying an agreement could be agreed upon soon: “I can confirm that we’re very close to a deal regarding the contract renewal of Sergio Busquets. This week Txiki Begiristain will return from Japan and he will finalize the last details.”

Because Begiristain had to travel to Japan at the end of last week, a new meeting with Josep Maria Orobitg, the agent of Busquets, who would sign a new five-year deal, couldn’t be scheduled. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that, now the renewal with Xavi seems to be finalized, the renewal of Busquets is the next priority. Barcelona in any case want to have a deal before Christmas.

Begiristain said last week to journalists that Busquets is aware that what Barcelona can offer him has its limits: “He has his demands and the club also. When you’re talking about contract years and salaries, it’s never easy. We don’t want to break the financial balance in the squad and we have to be very careful looking at how the world of football is now.”

You expected this extremely rapid progress of your son?
I think that nobody expected this. We all saw he had some qualities, that he sacrificed a lot, that he lived for football, but you never can predict how these things go. He equally could have stayed two more years with the B team and then having to leave the club. Luckily, he’s now playing with the first team and he’s doing well.

You agree that, besides his talent, his main quality is his mental strength?
Sergio has always been a very mature guy for his age. He didn’t change at all and hopefully he never will.

Which advice did you give him, as a father and as a former Barcelona player?
He’s not a boy you have to follow very closely. He has always had a great attitude. At a sporting level, I’ve only said that he should play like he can play. Calm and with confidence.

People say that he has his coolness from his father…
Those kind of comparisons are inevitable, but Sergio has his personality and I have mine. We of course have some things in common, but that’s only normal.

His life has changed a lot, with relation to his studies, his social life… ?
He stopped his studies last year to concentrate on Barcelona’s second team and now he’s fully focusing on football. For now, he’s dealing very well with this new situation. It’s a very calm guy, who likes to stay at home and who rarely goes out.

Has he developed as a player over the last year?
He always has played like this, moving the ball quickly and having a good vision of the game. Since he was a little boy, he has always had this easy touch. At the same time, he has always worked very hard. In midfield he always was the one who stole the ball and passed it quickly to a team-mate.

He has always played as midfielder?
When he started at seven or eight years old, he played as centre forward, but he soon dropped to midfield and he kept playing at that position.

French sports paper L’Equipe claims that AC Milan is interested in Barcelona defensive midfielder and Spanish youth international Sergio Busquets (20) and has already made the player a concrete offer.

The Italian club would have offered Busquets a salary that doubles what Barcelona has offered the player to renew his contract that expires at the end of this season (read more here).

Besides Milan, Busquets would also be closely monitored by English Premier League clubs Arsenal and Liverpool.

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that the first offer that Barcelona has made is far from what Busquets is asking. Someone from the entourage of the player is quoted as saying that the offer is just not good enough: “It seems that he is not allowed to ask a lot, but he definitely deserves more.”

Barcelona has offered the player to stay registered as B-team player, which the player is willing to accept. The Catalan midfielder would receive a fixed salary of 300 000 euro plus incentives based on minutes played and trophies won with the first team (read more here).

Asked about the renewal negotiations, Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola said at a press conference on Friday that he thinks a deal will be found soon: “I know that Txiki and Josep Maria Orobitg, the agent of the player, will close a deal soon. I’m not worried about the effect that the talks can have on the player’s state of mind.”

When scoring his first official goal as Barcelona defensive midfielder and Spanish youth international Sergio Busquets (20) against Basel on Wednesday, Busquets celebrated this by kissing the tattoo on his left fore-arm and pointing to the sky.

Asked about it, Busquets explained the dedication to journalists after the match: “The phrase of the tattoo is a personal phrase and I especially dedicated the goal to my grandfather.”

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that the tattoo is an Arabic phrase which means “A thing for you, the life in my country” and that only Busquets knows the meaning which will never be revealed.

The paper also explains that Busquets was very close to his maternal grandfather, who recently passed away and who used to take him to football training sessions and matches when he was young because his father, former Barcelona goalkeeper Carles Busquets, usually didn’t have time to do that.