This season, Barcelona has been quite successful in defeating Real Madrid to win La Liga. After winning the trophy, now is the time for the Catalan team to think about the future further.
Of course, they have reason to think about long-term dominance, when they own bright young star Lamine Yamal. At the age of 17, the Spanish midfielder has scored 18 goals and 25 assists this season.
Most recently, Barcelona president Joan Laporta also affirmed his priority to extend Yamal. He was quoted by AS: Lamine's contract extension has been agreed upon and all that remains is an official signing.
He is a genius who plays for Barcelona, has many friends and belongs to a generation that is closely linked together.
Laporta also compared the extension of Yamal to Lionel Messi's case, showing how he appreciates young Spanish talent: "Yamal's deal is similar to Lionel Messi's, when Inter tried to chase him.
In the end, all of us, including Messi's father, decided that Barcelona had the best project. It was the right decision because Messi has become the best player in history."
Along with Yamal, Raphinha's rise at Barcelona was also a surprise. The Laporta president also confirmed that he would like to extend the Brazilian player: "We know he has talent, but every player needs time to adapt. Flick makes Raphinha special and he is becoming the new leader of the team.
The contract extension with Raphinha is one of the outstanding issues that we hope to resolve in the coming days or weeks. We don't want to be passive at the time when the player only has 1 year left on his contract."
Another star who has also revived under Hansi Flick is Frenkie De Jong. Laporta insists he will keep the Dutch star, despite the time when Barcelona were eager to sell the former Ajax star: I have always been a fan of De Jong.
He is one of the players who has maintained Barcelona's playing style, belonging to the Ajax school. I think he's enjoying it here.
Now he has recovered, we are renewing his contract and he is very excited to stay. We are determined to keep him.
