Babangida agrees to new Barca deal

Babangida started talks with Barca in August over increasing his personal terms and it seems he has eventually settled on his increased contract.

Haruna, the brother of Nigerian international Tijani, would have been allowed to leave Camp Nou on a free under his previous contract and they have eventually moved to secure the player after Fifa ruled that the terms of his old deal were void because he had signed when he was a minor.

The teenager crashed in 37 goals in 20 matches for Barcelona's C team, earning a move to the B side, although he has yet to break into the first team proper.

With the Catalans already having four non-EU players in Rivaldo, Javier Saviola, Fabio Rochemback and Giovanni and rumours rife that Juan Roman Riquelme will join in the summer, Barca have been looking into getting EU citizenship for Babangida in order to give him the opportunity to stay.

In October, Babangida decided to stay at Barca and at the time said: "We were speaking for a long time on whether I was staying or going and what I wanted was to have a good chance on a sporting level, not just financial.  I have spoken with the club and they have left me a little clearer and for that reason, I have decided to stay.

"If it were just the money then I would have left Barca, because there are clubs that offered much more money to me than I am getting."