"I'm not a victim but the truth is that I am losing money and gaining in other areas, which I'm going to enjoy in future years, " Salgado told a press conference here.

Salgado did not reveal what the 'other areas' might be nor the financial details of his new contract.

"It's my last large contract and I want to stay here until the end of my career," added the 28-year-old player, whose current contract is due to expire at the end of this season.

He admitted that the negotiations had been tense and that he was concerned that Real Madrid had put a deadline of Sunday on the contract talks.

"Now things are much calmer," said Salgado, who admitted he was grateful he had approaches from Chelsea, Manchester United and two Italian Serie A clubs to fall back on if talks with Real broke down.

"It's a privilege to have great clubs like these interested in me. If my discussions with Real had collapsed then I would have been thinking about these offers.

"But this is my place and where I want to stay," added Salgado, who is married to the daughter of the former president of Real Madrid, Lorenzo Sanz.

"After last night's game (when Real beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0) we arrived at an understanding. I don't really understand what happened over the last two months but when we had a face-to-face meeting, we left all the crazy things behind. We both wanted the same thing but we'd both been stubborn," reflected Salgado on Sunday.

Real Madrid also formally announced that fellow Spanish internationals Raul Gonzalez and Jose Maria 'Guti' Gutierrez will be renewing their contracts, also until 2009, in the near future.

Director general Jorge Valdano said the club wanted the trio to, "finish their careers at Real Madrid."

"We have managed to renew the three together and that can only be positive for the team as a whole," added Valdano.

Raul and Guti's renegotiations were far less fraught than Salgado's and the players' agents told Spanish media several weeks ago said that their clients would be renewing subject to some minor details being resolved.