New Xavi renewal meeting scheduled next week

Both main Catalan sports papers claim that there's a new meeting scheduled next week between Barcelona officials and Iván Corretja, the agent of Barcelona attacking midfielder and Spanish international Xavi (28), whose contract expires in 2010.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain will meet with the agent for the third time, with the positions not having come closer much after Barcelona's initial offer was thought to be far too low by the player and his entourage. Although a solution shouldn't be expected soon, both parties have the will to reach an agreement.

Catalan sports paper Sport reports that a meeting couldn't go through this week because Xavi's agent was in London, where he accompanied Catalan synchronized swimmer Gemma Mengual, whom he also represents, and assisted the English cup game Chelsea-Burnley on Wednesday.

The paper claims that Barcelona general director of football Raül Sanllehí will assist next's weeks meeting and that it will be the second time that there will be talked about money. Barcelona would have informally offered Xavi a four-year contract with a gross year salary of 5,5 million euro the first two years and 6 million euro the last two years.

Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that Begiristain and Corretja already met more than ten times and that Xavi, who is now earning 4 million euro plus incentives a year, would be asking around 8 million euro. Juventus, Arsenal and Liverpool would be ready to offer the player a contract if the renewal negotiations would collapse.

Asked about the renewal negotiations, Begiristain admitted this week to journalists that the talks aren't progressing well: "At this moment, there are some difficulties, although we would like to come to an agreement soon. I hope we will be able to unblock the negotiations."

Spanish news agency EFE claims that Barcelona knows that Xavi has several offers from other European top teams, but that the club is confident that a renewal will be signed soon. The positions would be coming closer and a deal could be reached shortly.

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