Nico Williams has delighted fans in the city of Bilbao (and caused much consternation in Barcelona) with the announcement that the exciting young Spain international has signed a new 10-year contract with Athletic Club.
After a string of standout performances in LaLiga last season, Williams had been Barça's top transfer target of the summer. However, Athletic have moved swiftly to nip any speculation in the bud by getting the 22-year-old winger to commit to the club until 2035 and increase his €58 million release clause by "more than 50%"
Williams now joins elder brother Iñaki Williams as one of both Athletic and world football's longest-contracted players, with the latter having signed a similarly extensive deal with the Basque side several years ago.
Many players have signed off on equally lengthy terms, with some enjoying more success than others. Here's a selection from recent times of some of the biggest contracts ever handed out in Europe, and how they turned out.
Editor's note: A version of this article was first published in June 2020 and has since been updated.
Oihan Sancet, Dani Vivian (Athletic Club), 8 years
Athletic Club love to offer long-term deals, given their transfer policy only allows them to sign players who are linked to the Basque region of Spain.
Both are key players in coach Ernesto Valverde's squad, with attacking midfielder Sancet scoring 15 goals and Vivian forming part of LaLiga's meanest defense as Athletic finished to qualify for next season's Champions League. Good job they are committed to the club until 2032.
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Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal), 8 years
Fàbregas signed an eight-year contract with Arsenal in 2006, as Arsène Wenger wanted to build his post-Invincibles team around the young Spain midfielder.
19 at the time, Fàbregas gave five good years to the Gunners before the magnetic pull of his DNA took him back to Barcelona in 2011. Although that move didn't really work out.
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Mykhailo Mudryk (Chelsea), 8½ years
When it comes to the longest active contracts in world football, Chelsea currently have nine of the top 12 players listed on their books.
Ukraine winger Mudryk arrived in January 2023 after completing a €70m (plus €30m in add-ons) transfer from Shakhtar Donetsk. He was reportedly hoping to join Arsenal at one point, but the offer of a lucrative 8½-year contract from the Blues was understandably enough to sway his judgement.
Unfortunately, the speedy forward has yet to win over his doubters after failing to impress during a sporadic string of first-team cameos. And as if things weren't going badly enough, Mudryk also hasn't featured for Chelsea since early December after being provisionally suspended by the FA over an ongoing drug test issue., and now faces a ban of up to four years having recently been charged by the FA.
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Enzo Fernández, Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea), 9 years
Chelsea went big in their efforts to prize Palmer from Manchester City in the summer of 2023 and eventually got the young forward on board with a seven-year contract. Palmer proved an instant hit by scoring 25 goals during a successful debut season at Stamford Bridge which then concluded with the club hurriedly agreeing to tack another two years on the end of the 22-year-old's mega-deal, thus extending it to nine years.
Fernandez impressed with Argentina at the 2022 World Cup and Chelsea made him the most expensive player in British football history in a €121m transfer designed to keep him tied to the club up until the summer of 2031. It's fair to say that the midfielder got off to a slightly underwhelming start at Stamford Bridge, given his lofty billing as the fifth most-expensive player of all time, but there has been tangible improvement since.
The same goes for Jackson, who has started to hit the net with more regularity after arriving from Villarreal and signing an initial eight-year deal, before penning another two years on top.
Other players currently on Chelsea's books with contractual obligations of seven years and above include Pedro Neto, Renato Veiga, Moisés Caicedo, Filip Jørgensen and Aaron Anselmino.
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Lionel Messi (Barcelona), 9 years
Messi signed nine different contracts during his time at Barcelona (the one pictured is from 2014), but the longest was the nine-year deal he agreed in September 2005, a matter of months after breaking through into the first team.
Messi was signed up until 2014 and doubled his wages in the process, but we think it's safe to say that Barca definitely got more than their money's worth as the Argentina legend quickly ascended to greatness.
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Saúl Ñíguez, Koke (Atlético Madrid), 9 years
After becoming a staple of Atlético Madrid's tenacious midfield, Saúl put pen to paper on a huge nine-year deal in 2017 that saw the then 22-year-old contracted to the club until 2026. But it wasn't long before he fell out with manager Diego Simeone and was moved on loan to Chelsea for an unremarkable spell in 2021-22 and then spent last season Sevilla, who finished 17th in LaLiga.
At the same time, Saul's midfield partner Koke also had five years tacked onto his existing deal to keep him until 2024, and he has since signed a pair of one-year extensions to keep him until 2026. The 33-year-old captained Atlético 39 times last season, so that worked out better.
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Iñaki Williams (Athletic Club), 9 years
Yet another LaLiga star gven a nine-year deal, the elder of the Williams brothers agreed to a vast contract with Athletic Club in 2019 that could see the versatile forward play out his entire career at San Mamés.
Any interested club wishing to poach the 31-year-old will now have to stump up a cool €135m to trigger his release clause.
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Erling Haaland has a message to all defenders after the 24-year-old signed a new long term deal at Man City.
Erling Haaland (Manchester City) 9½ years
Haaland put pen to paper on a lucrative new 9½-year contract extension at City back in January after rattling through 111 goals in his first 126 games for the club.
The prolific Norwegian striker won two successive Premier League titles and Golden Boot awards in his first two seasons in England to then "only" muster 34 goals in 48 appearances in what proved to be a relatively fallow 2024-25 season for Pep Guardiola's side.
Still, we reckon both parties are still perfectly happy with their long-term commitment.
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Denílson (Real Betis), 10 years
A precursor to the mega deals we regularly witness today, Denílson became the most expensive player in the world when Real Betis forked out a fee of €30m for him in the aftermath of the 1998 World Cup.
The then-20-year-old Brazil winger agreed a gigantic 10-year contract but ultimately struggled to deliver, failing to maintain any consistent form and leaving LaLiga for Bordeaux six years later (two of those spent on loan at São Paulo) with just seven goals to his name.
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Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), Lifetime
In gratitude for his years of exemplary service, Barcelona presented Iniesta with a "lifetime contract" in October 2017 -- a golden deal designed to keep the then-33-year-old midfielder at Camp Nou for the rest of his career.
Six months later, he upped sticks and moved to Japanese club Vissel Kobe, with Barca left wondering if he'd mistakenly assumed their contract was merely symbolic.
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Iker Casillas, Raúl (Real Madrid), Lifetime
Real Madrid were so keen for Casillas and Raúl to remain at the Bernabéu for the rest of their careers that the pair were both handed "contracts for the rest of their sporting lives" in 2008.
Casillas' deal was an enormous nine-year agreement, while Raúl (aged 30 at the time) added one year to his existing contract.
However, both deals included a rolling clause that would automatically add an extra year to the contract should the player in question manage to make 30 appearances the season before.
In fairness, both players definitely spent their best years with Los Blancos, though both left the club well before the end of their respective "sporting lives" -- Casillas to FC Porto and Raúl to Schalke -- rendering the whole gesture a moot. President Florentino Pérez's comments about the pair have come to light, and perhaps now we know why.
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