Valencia have extended their agreement with defender Jose Luis Gaya until June 2020.
The 19-year-old was being publicly pursued by Real Madrid, and was rumored to be a transfer target of Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal in recent weeks.
Gaya’s previous contract had a release clause of £18 million. But it is now understood that the left-back’s clause has been increase to close to £40 million.
The agreement was signed this morning ahead of Los Che’s trip to the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday. Valencia are hoping the increase in the defender’s wages and release clause will cool the interest of prospective buyers.
In recent years the club has been burned by early departures. Both Jordi Alba (Barcelona) and Juan Bernat (Bayern Munich) left Valencia after club officials failed to act quickly enough with regards to improving their contract situations.
Speaking after his signing, Gaya said: “I am very happy and proud to extend my deal with Valencia. It’s what I wanted from the beginning and in the end things have turned out as both parties wanted.
“It was very exciting to debut in the Primera Division with Valencia, and now I have signed on for five more years. I want to thank the club for this renewal. May 25th is my birthday and there is no better early gift.
“Now we have a game against Real Madrid, which is always difficult, but we have our strengths and we will be going from there.”
Valencia General Sporting Manager, Francisco Rufete said: “Congratulations to the fans. He is a homegrown player who is performing at world class level. He wanted to stay with us and we should be grateful to the fans, because we are going to have a homegrown talent here for many years.
“Jose Luis has brought a lot to the first team and is an example to motivate the players at the Academy. He shows the excitement that comes with rowing up at Valencia CF, playing for Valencia CF and continuing your career here.
“Hopefully we can keep adding players like Gaya and Paco Alcacer to our first team, because this model will give much joy to the fans.”
Programming note: Real Madrid vs. Valencia will be shown LIVE on Saturday starting at 2:00pm EST on beIN SPORTS and fuboTV (free 14-day trial).
