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Victor Valdes and "Barcelona" club negotiations - unexpected turn of events at a 180 degree angle.
Last week, Spanish sports newspapers reported that the Catalan club plans to offer the goalkeeper, whose current contract expires in the summer of 2014, an additional four-year contract. However, it now seems that negotiations have stalled as soon as they began.
Furthermore, Victor Valdes' agent Gines Carvajal, on Thursday evening, released an official statement that his client does not wish to sign a new contract with "Barcelona". The goalkeeper's father, Jose Manuel Valdes, also participated in the discussions with club representatives.
According to some sources, the financial terms of the contract were not even discussed in the negotiations, although it was previously known that "Barcelona" offered Victor Valdes an additional four-year contract, a higher salary, and planned to increase the player's release clause from 100 to 150 million euros.
According to "El Mundo Deportivo", representatives of the Catalan team asked Victor Valdes' agents not to rush into making a decision and at least for now not to disclose information about the progress of the negotiations, but G. Carvajal and the goalkeeper's father refused to do so.
Rumors spread that the Catalan is refusing to negotiate a new contract, and in the media, rumors about Victor Valdes' next career move began to pour in one after the other. Among the possible contenders to acquire the 31-year-old goalkeeper are London's "Chelsea" team, where Victor Valdes would most likely replace Petr Cech, as well as London's "Arsenal" and the wealthy teams "Anzhi", "Manchester City" and "Paris Saint-Germain".
Journalists speculate that if the current "Barcelona" goalkeeper were to move to Manchester, former Catalan team leaders - vice president Ferran Soriano and technical secretary Txiki Begiristain - would likely have contributed to the move. Both are currently assisting the English champions.
On the other hand, according to the media, the hastily emerging dilemma will also need to be resolved by the Catalan club. In their statements, representatives of "Barcelona" have repeatedly emphasized that the players who "want to represent them" are the ones who compete in the team, and President Sandro Rosell has stated that the club is not creating obstacles for players who want to leave. This is a clear signal that players who are unwilling to extend their contracts are considered "losing motivation" and may start packing their bags.
"Sell now or put on the bench?" - this is how journalists from the daily newspaper "Sport" published in Catalonia are discussing in one of their publications.
The media also lists possible alternatives for Victor Valdes. It is said that among the possible contenders are Valencia's goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Atletico Madrid's Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, David De Gea from Manchester United, AS Roma's goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, and others.
On Friday, Barcelona's sports director Andoni Zubizarreta will hold a press conference, so it is expected that he will explain the situation in more detail and reveal the Catalan club's future plans in the player market.
