Philippe Coutinho signs new five-year deal at Liverpool to end Barcelona interest
His new £150,000-a-week wages make him Liverpool's highest-paid player
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Your support makes all the difference.Philippe Coutinho has committed his long-term future to Liverpool and warded off any interest from Barcelona by signing a new five-year contract at the club.
The deal, worth in the region of £150,000-a-week, makes the Brazilian playmaker the highest-paid player at the club and sees him remain on Merseyside until 2022.
It is understood there is no release clause in his contract, which means the contract has not been signed to boost his transfer value if Barcelona - who have been publicly pursuing the 24-year-old - enter negotiations with the Reds over the player.
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.”
Coutinho has recently returned to first-team action after an ankle injury sidelined him in late November and he insisted he is working relentlessly to get back to the level he was at before his time in the treatment room.
He added: “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.”
Coutinho joined the Anfield side in January 2013 from Inter Milan for £8.5m and has scored 34 goals in 163 appearances for Liverpool.
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