Abidal pens Barca deal

Eric Abidal has put pen-to-paper on a new deal at Barcelona that will keep him at the club until 2012 as coach Pep Guardiola looks to tie down his key players

The French full-back signed the new agreement the day after helping the Blaugrana to an impressive UEFA Champions League win against Inter Milan at Camp Nou.

With his previous deal running until the end of next season, Abidal was keen to add at least another year and after negotiations with technical secretary Txiki Begiristain a deal was reached.

While his buy-out clause has remained at €90million the France international, who recovered from the H1N1 virus this week, saw his salary increase.

Barca have worked on trying to secure the services of several of their first-choice stars in recent months and Abidal is their sixth to pen a new deal.

Victor Valdes, Pedro, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and Yaya Toure have all reached agreements with the club after being key members of last term's treble-winning squad.

Abidal joined Barcelona in the summer of 2007 from Lyon.