Jesús Navas signs lifetime Sevilla deal after U-turn

Jesús Navas signs lifetime Sevilla deal after U-turn

Sevilla captain Jesús Navas has signed a lifetime contract with the club, the LaLiga side said on Saturday, just days after the player announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season.

Navas, 38, is Sevilla’s record appearance holder, having played for the club for 17 seasons over two different spells, winning eight trophies.

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The right-back published an open letter on Friday saying he’d taken the “painful” decision to leave his boyhood club, having received “not one phone call” offering him a new contract, with his deal set to expire this summer.

“I’ve always been told that I could stay here as long as I wanted, but nobody has dispelled my doubts as to whether that call confirming that I’m staying would come at the end of the season,” Navas said. “People have said that I’ve leaving for a better offer, but I don’t have a team [for next season] yet because I want to focus on my country [at the Euros].”

Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco held a news conference on Saturday to contest that version of events, blaming a “misunderstanding.”