The Fans Football Blog3

Madrid sports tabloid Marca claims that Barcelona attacking midfielder and Spanish international Xavi (28) has rejected a new and better renewal proposal last week.

Barcelona offers Xavi, whose contract expires in 2010 and who currently earns 4 million euro a year, a new four-year deal and the club would have raised their initial salary offer of 5 million euro year a year to 7 million euro plus incentives for trophies won, games played and Champions League qualification.

After five meetings, a deal nevertheless wouldn't be near yet, with Xavi wanting to become the second best paid player of the squad, together with Eto'o, and therefore asking 9 million euro a year (read more here). A new meeting between the two parties would be scheduled for this week.

Asked about the renewal negotiations, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said last week to journalists that things are looking good: "The talks are going in the right direction and we will do everything that is needed to keep him. He's a key player for us because besides being a great player, he's also an example for the youth players. But I don't want to say more about it because it's Txiki Begiristan who is dealing with the contract renewals. He's responsible for these issues and he's holding the talks trying to renew the contracts."

Spanish news site El Confidencial claims that Italian clubs Juventus and Inter Milan would want to sign Xavi next summer, while English Premier League teams Manchester United and Chelsea would also be ready to enter the race for the Catalan midfielder if he would be put for sale.

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