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          Gerard Pique agrees long-term Barcelona contract until 2022

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          • ESPN staffJan 18, 2018, 10:25 AM

          Gerard Pique has agreed a new contract with Barcelona that will keep him at the club until 2022.

          Barca announced the defender's new deal has a release clause set at €500 million.

          In a statement on their website it was confirmed "in the coming days the club will announce the date of the official signing of the new contract."

          The centre-back, who will turn 31 next month, becomes the latest in a string of Barca players to sign new terms, with his existing contract due to expire in 2019.

          Both Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta signed new deals at the end of the last year, following on from Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

          Sergi Roberto is next in line to agree a new contract, with the midfielder confirming in December that he's hopeful of reaching an agreement soon.

          The club are also wary of the fact Samuel Umtiti's terms need to be revisited, with the defender's current deal including a €60m release clause, a figure which Europe's top clubs are increasingly likely to pay.

          Pique joined Barcelona as a 10-year-old in 1997 before leaving to join Manchester United in 2004. He returned to his hometown club in 2008 and has since won La Liga six times and the Champions League on three occasions.

          In total Pique has played 422 games for Barca and scored 37 goals. He has also won the World Cup and European Championship with Spain.

          Pique was involved on Wednesday as Barca lost for the time this season since the Spanish Super Cup, going down to local rivals Espanyol in the Copa del Rey, but he is confident they can recover quickly.

          "If you could choose a day to lose, it might have been today," Pique told reporters after a hard-fought Catalan derby.

          "Because in a week we can turn things around at Camp Nou. The penalty [miss] affected us too much. From there, the game went in a direction we didn't want and we complicated things.

          "We will approach the second leg differently. From the first minute, we will press high, we will try to create a lot of chances and hopefully the home support drives us on."

          ESPN FC's Barcelona correspondent Sam Marsden contributed to this report.