Carles Puyol has revealed that he held off talks about a new contract with Barcelona while he decided if he wanted to try his luck in a new challenge abroad.
The Catalan club's captain has confirmed that he has put pen-to-paper on a deal that will keep him at Camp Nou until 2013, but he was tempted by the prospect of playing in England or Italy.
Chelsea, Manchester City, Inter and AC Milan had all been linked with Puyol and he was keen to weigh up how attractive each offer was before he chose his next step.
Instead of moving clubs though, the lure of staying and leading Barcelona to further glory and remaining a one-club man for his entire career tempted him to stay.
"I look forward to being here for many years," he was quoted as saying by Sport .
"It was very clear that this season I would be here and I wanted to enjoy it, I asked for time to think about if I could try something else.
"But it's easy to stay here, especially for the fans. Nobody else could give me what Barcelona does."
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