Victor Valdes’ future at Camp Nou hangs in doubt

Since the winter transfer window opened earlier this month, rumours regarding the future of Barcelona Goalkeeper Victor Valdes have been doing the rounds.

It had always been assumed that like his teammates Puyol and Xavi, this La Masia product would also end his career with his boyhood club Barcelona. But in the recent weeks a lot of contact stories have emerged and a lot of doubt has been created.  Valdes in a press conference hinted at a move away from Spain by saying that he was not ruling out the possibility of “experiencing other cultures, other styles of football, other countries, whatever comes my way”

When asked about his contract he said, “Since signing the last one, I haven’t discussed it any further” “My hopes of ending my career here, time will tell. I’ve been in goal here for 11 years, which is complicated in many ways.”

In response to all these rumours, Barca director Andoni Zubizarreta said that they have opened contracts talks with the goalkeeper and something would be finalised soon. But the player’s manager Gines Carvajal denied any such reports and said that they were still waiting for a response from the Spanish giants.

He said, “We have never sat down to talk with Barcelona about the future of Victor Valdes,”

“We’ve spoken with Zubizarreta a couple of times and the club have told us they wants to speak to us about renewing Victor’s contract, but nothing more.

“Zubizarreta wants to sit down and talk about Victor’s future and when he calls us we will be there and will tell him our point of view. We will start talking whenever Barca decide.

Valdes’current contract is set to expire in June 2014 and has a €150 million buyout plea.

Since his debut for the Catalans in 1995, Valdes has been an integral part of the first team line up since almost a decade. The 30 year old has played just under 400 games and has won the prestigious Zamora Trophy, awarded to the goalkeeper who has conceded  the least number of goals in La Liga, for a record five times. He is considered to be the best goalkeeper in the history of the club.

In the midst of all this, Valdes has attracted the interest from a lot of clubs from Serie A, while Bracelona are looking at Manchester United’s No. 1 David de Gea for a replacement.  They are also interested in Borussia M’gladbach keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Leno.

Tags: Andoni Zubizarreta, Barcelona, David de Gea, Goalkeeper, Manchester United, Transfer Window, Victor Valdes