Messi patient over Barca contract

Lionel Messi is in no rush to start negotiations over a new contract with Barcelona.

The Argentine’s current deal expires in 2016 and the 25-year-old says there is no need to panic as his long-term future is at the club.

“I am not worried about my contract, I have repeated that on numerous occasions,” he told Marca.

“My objectives with the club are longstanding; to improve and to try to win everything that we have already won.

Messi is well on course to add yet more silverware to an already glittering CV, with Barca top of La Liga and the Argentina international in the running for a fourth consecutive Ballon d’Or crown.

He admits he is driven by a constant thirst for success.

“They say that I am very competitive,” he said.

“I like to train, I like to play and I like to win. I have always been like that since I was young, but it would make me very happy if one of my team-mates won the Ballon d’Or, they also deserve it. Without my team-mates I would not have won everything that I have won.”

When questioned about his supposed running battle with Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi was quick to play down any talk of a rivalry between the pair and insisted it was nothing more than a media creation.

“I do not compete against Ronaldo, I try to do the best possible with Barca and with Argentina,” he said.

“That is something that the press have invented. Neither Ronaldo nor myself competes with the other.”