Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets. (Photo : Getty Images)
Spanish defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets recently signed a new five-year contract with his mother team FC Barcelona that includes a £152 million release clause, which virtually halts any incoming offers from interested Premier League clubs Manchester United and Manchester City.
The Daily Star indicated that the back-to-back La Liga champions have given the 27-year-old Spain international a fresh five-year deal that will make him stay at the Nou Camp until 2021, which is said to be possibly extended to 2023 "depending on how many games he plays between now and then".
The bigger news, however, is that the deal comes with a humongous £152 million buyout clause, rumored to be a strategy by the Catalonia residents to stave off any bids from teams who are trying to lure Busquets away from their side.
Busquets was speculated to be headed for a reunion with former Barça boss Pep Guardiola at the Etihad this summer while the Citizen's cross-city rivals, the Red Devils, were also rumored to be keen on snatching him from Spain with incoming manager Jose Mourinho aiming to improve United's spine.
As it turned out, though, the 6-foot-2 Sabadell, Spain native preferred to stay in his home country and play for the only team he had known in his so far 10-year senior career.
Busquets began his professional career playing for Barça's B squad for two season before getting promoted to the A team in the summer of 2008. He appeared in his first La Liga game on Sep. 2008 during a 1-1 draw with Racing de Santander.
He was a key part of Barcelona teams that won six Spanish top flight titles, four Copa del Rey's, four Supercopa de Espana, three Super Cups, three club World Cups, and three Champions League trophies, making him one of the world's winningest footballers of his generation, as per Daily Mail Online.
In eight seasons with Barcelona's first team, he had appeared in a total of 384 games in all competitions and had scored 12 goals mainly as a defensive midfielder.
He is considered as one of the best box-to-box players at the moment, which had attracted the attention of a lot of big-name clubs in the all the major football leagues.
