Barcelona: Renewing Ter Stegen's contract will be anything but easy
Ter Stegen will be out of contract in 2022 and before the coronavirus crisis, aspired to be the highest-paid goalkeeper in the world.
Before the coronavirus crisis happened, Marc-André Ter Stegen was hoping to become the best-paid goalkeeper in the world. How things have changed. His idea was to continue at Barça in spite of interest, whether real or just rumoured, from Juventus and Bayern Munich, but that wouldn't condition the negotiating powers of his agent Gerd vom Bruch when it comes to agreeing new terms. His current contract runs until June 2022 and Barça had planned to offer him improved conditions together with a similar extension to his last one. Ter Stegen, who joined in 2014 and signed a five-year deal (taking him to 2019), renewed in 2017, two years before his contract was due to expire and added another two years onto his previous arrangement (taking him to 2022). At the same time, his buy-out clause was raised by 100 million euros to 180 million.
A new deal for Ter Stegen during uncertain times
Barça want the keeper to extend his contract by another two years before time starts running out. But on top of the player's wage demands,the club now has the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis to factor in. Making Ter Stegen the world's highest-earning goalkeeper while income has fallen through the floor is not going to be an easy task and is going to need a fair amount of imagination. Talks with the player's agent might end up with figures dropping but who knows? Maybe Ter Stegen might favour looking elsewhere. The Germany international is the second most valued goalkeeper in the world according to Transfermarkt, with a market price of 72 million euros, - the same as Liverpool's Alisson Becker. Jan Oblak, valued at 80 million, is the most valued goalkeeper on the planet. Barça could offer Ter Stegen a longer extension - more than two years to guarantee his future while the transfer market situation remains uncertain.
But the keeper is clearly in no hurry to sort out a new deal. He gave Barça a difficult time in August 2016 when he gave the club's then Technical Secretary Robert Fernández an ultimatum, threatening to join Manchester City. That was resolved and he has since played 224 official games for Barça, in which he has conceded 206 goals and kept 94 clean sheets.
Ter Stegen still a way off Barcelona's historic keepers
He is still a long way off emulating Barça's legendary keepers. Víctor Valdés made 535 appearances for the club and Andoni Zubizarreta, who was key in bringing Ter Stegen to Camp Nou, made 410; the great Antoni Ramallets played 384 games and Salvador Sadurní, 331 - 107 more than Ter Stegen.
Highly respected at Barcelona, the only task left if consolidating his place with the German national team. With Manuel Neuer in his way, he has only managed to be capped 24 times and his strong character has sometimes rubbed up those at the Federation the wrong way. Now he wants to become the world's top earning keeper at Barça - health crisis or not.