MADRID, Spain, November 18 – French international defender Eric Abidal has rejected Barcelona’s latest contract extension offer, his agent told Spanish radio Thursday.
Abidal’s current deal runs out in June 2012, but agent David Venditelli said the Spanish and European champions’ latest offer included one more year, with a year’s extension during which he would effectively be paid by the number of matches played.
“Today we have a proposition with a bonus for each match played, and we don’t want a contract like that,” Venditelli told the ComRadio station.
“After five seasons at Barcelona we believe that Abidal has status.”
Abidal and Barcelona representatives are set to meet again before the end of the year.
Two months ago the player said that contract issues had not been a priority because he was focusing fully on his health six months after undergoing surgery to remove a liver tumour.
Meanwhile, former Germany captain Michael Ballack has dropped his biggest hint yet that he will leave current club Bayer Leverkusen when his contract expires in the summer.
“For the moment, I am not really thinking about extending my contract,” the 35-year-old told Sky television ahead of his club’s trip to face Kaiserslautern, one of his former teams, this weekend.
“I am playing as if this were my last season at Leverkusen. I still feel good but I don’t yet know what I’m going to do.
“If I remain in good health, then I want to carry on for another one, two or three years at a good level. But where that will be, I don’t know.”
Ballack has made just 25 Bundesliga appearances, scoring once, in an injury-hit second spell with the Factory Team since leaving Chelsea in 2010.
But even if Leverkusen want to keep hold of Ballack, it appears that they will have some convincing to do.
“We need to establish exactly what it is we want to do, what we want to win,” Ballack continued.
“Otherwise, we will never improve and we will never finish higher than eighth or ninth.”
Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga last season, but after losing coach Jupp Heynckes to Bayern Munich, they have struggled for consistency under his replacement Robin Dutt.
With five wins in their opening 12 league games, they currently sit in eighth place in the table, 10 points behind leaders Bayern.