Liverpool have officially announced that Philippe Coutinho has signed a new contract with the club that will keep him at the club till 2022.
The 24-year-old put pen to paper on Wednesday and the deal will become effective from July 1, 2017.
The 24-year-old will reportedly earn a somewhere between £150,000-a-week to £200,000-a-week with the new deal, that will make him the clubs highest earner above the likes of Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Daniel Sturridge.
The Brazil international was delighted at signing the new deal, he said, “I would like to thank everybody at the club, first of all.”
“I am very happy to sign a new contract here. It is a club that I am very grateful to and this shows my happiness here. I will work much harder to repay the belief shown in me.”
“I signed this new contract to stay here for a few more years because it’s a great honour for me. It gives me great happiness because I was welcomed here with open arms by everyone at the club and the supporters right from my first day. I am very thankful to this football club for everything.”
After staying out of first-team action for over 46 days due to an ankle injury, Coutinho made a return to action on January 11 against Southampton.
“I am the kind of person that works very hard in trying to get better every day. I am always trying to learn, so this will be no different from what it was before my injury.”
“Of course, with my injury things got a bit more difficult and I wasn’t playing for quite a while.”
“When you come back, of course it is too difficult to be at the same level, but I have been working very hard each day in order to carry on producing good performances on the pitch to help the team achieve victories.”
“The last few games were not so good but we are ready to stand up again and carry on fighting.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona star Neymar Jr tried very hard to convince his international teammate to join the Catalan giants in the recent months but failed as Coutinho chose to stay at Liverpool.
Neymar and Coutinho are very close friends and Barcelona had asked their star player to try and convince the Reds star to join him and Rafinha at the Camp Nou.
The hardship of competing with the trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar for a starting spot also played a vital role in his decision to stay put with the Premier League outfit.
The Brazil international has contributed 13 goals this season till now and has made himself as ‘the man’ at Anfield and has been very vocal about his admiration of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
Barcelona will now have to look for alternatives after failing to lure the Samba d’Or winner – although with budget crunch the Catalan club’s topmost priority is tying down five-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi to a new long-term contract.