The Argentina superstar put pen to paper on his new deal at the Nou Camp on Thursday afternoon and is now tied to the Catalan giants until June 30, 2018.

Messi began his career at Newell’s Old Boys, where he played for five years until 2000, when he made the journey to Spain to join Barcelona’s youth team at age 13. He played for the first time on the senior squad at 16, in a friendly against Porto.

His contract with Barcelona wasn’t due to expire until June 30, 2016.

Messi follows in the footsteps of fellow club stalwarts Xavi and Carles Puyol, both of whom signed their extensions last month. Puyol and Xavi will extend theirs to June 2016.

The Catalans announced in December that Messi, along with Xavi and Puyol, had agreed to extend their contracts.

Barcelona defender Jordi Alba says Messi’s renewal “is great news for Barcelona.”

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Imagine how effective they could be if they worked together.

At their joint news conference Friday, someone asked the brothers if they would consider teaming up should either be forced out of his current post.

“No question about it,” John said. “We’ve had that conversation in the past. It just never really worked out timing-wise. I’d love to work for Jim. It would be the greatest thing in the world.”

Jim, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, said, “Definitely, I would work for him.”

Super Bowl tradition dictates that the coaches meet with the media separately two days before the Super Bowl. That custom was altered Friday because, after all, two brothers have never before coached against each other in the Super Bowl.

Wearing a dark suit, white shirt, striped tie and lace-up dress shoes, John settled into a director’s chair behind a Ravens helmet. Jim, wearing a 49ers hat, a sweatshirt, khaki pants and running shoes, sat in an identical chair behind a San Francisco helmet.

Calling it “an exciting moment,” John ticked off the names of family members in attendance, including his parents. They posed for pictures with grandfather Joe Sepidi on the stage afterward, too.

Jack Harbaugh, their father, was a successful college coach. His sons followed in his footsteps, but on different paths. There was one time, however, when the routes nearly merged.

“We almost made it happen at Stanford at one time,” John said. “It would be an honor to have him on the staff. He’s a great coach. You always try to get great coaches, and there are none better than Jim Harbaugh, and I mean that seriously. There’s no better coach in the National Football League than this guy right here.”

To which Jim added, “Well, Jack Harbaugh.”

The family coaching tree could run even deeper one day. Jim’s son, Jay, works for John as a coaching intern with the Ravens.

“He’s far better than we’ve anticipated, and I knew he would be great at what he does,” John said.

The brothers obviously had a lot of fun with the situation, joking with each other and sometimes acting like a comedy team.

Someone asked them to list their commonalities and philosophical differences.

“I would be hard-pressed to spell philosophical right now,” Jim said.

“I know he can’t spell commonalities,” John said, not missing a beat.

Although Jack Harbaugh has received much of the credit for molding the boys into coaches, the brothers revealed that their mother, Jackie, had a great deal of influence on their growth into men.

“There is no one in the family who has more competitive fire than my mother,” Jim said. “She competes like a maniac. She has just always believed in us, and I think that is the most important thing to me. She believed in me, John, and Joanie, and took us to games and played catch with us, shot baskets with us, and just believed in us.”

Said John: “No one would fight harder for us than our mom, no matter what the situation was, or teach us how to have each other’s back and be there for one another. We may have been talking football with Dad in the basement, but Mom was talking about other things. There were a lot of things going on in our world during the ’70s, and Mom was always tuned in on those kinds of things.”

Someone asked the brothers whether they considered how they will handle the postgame handshake. Jim Harbaugh enraged Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz for giving him a quick handshake and a hard backslap after a 2011 game.

“I’ve given absolutely no consideration to the postgame handshake or bear hug or anything else,” John said. “I haven’t thought about that for one second. Have you, Jim?”

“I have not,” Jim confirmed.

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Ollie has demonstrated to UConn that he can coach, lead, coordinate, relate and organize a program.

He also has had to ensure his players performed well academically, especially after a poor Academic Progress Rate spanning a four-year period at the school was the reason the Huskies were the highest-profile program banned from the 2013 postseason.

According to UConn athletic director Warde Manuel, the first-semester grades posted were satisfactory and the results “weren’t an issue.”

Therefore, Ollie was approached this week with a chance to become the permanent successor to Hall-of-Fame coach Jim Calhoun, instead of a seven-month interim stint. Ollie, who turned 40 on Thursday, had been working under a one-year, $625,000 contract since September, when he was hired to replace the retired Calhoun.

“I’m not replacing coach Calhoun,” Ollie said. “He’s here, and I’ll lean on him for a lot of advice. I’m not following in his footsteps. He has his own shoes. I’ve got to create my own path and I can’t waiver from my convictions.

“I’m used to winning around here. That’s why I came here. That’s not going to stop. We will do it well and we will do it right.”

Ollie’s new deal was completed Saturday morning. The Huskies beat Washington 61-53 at Hartford’s XL Center on Saturday night.

Ollie will receive a total of $1.2 million in Year 1, with increases to $1.25 million in 2014-15; $1.3 million in 2015-16; $1.325 million in 2016-17 and $1.34 million in 2017-18.

“It’s a five-year contract, but I’m looking at it like I can be the coach here for 20-25 years,” said Ollie, who consistently has called coaching his alma mater his dream job.

The contract also contains strong language about the Huskies’ APR. Ollie will receive a payment of $10,000 if the APR score is 930 or above in a single year, while a four-year APR average of 930 or above would earn him a one-time payment of $50,000.

If UConn’s APR score falls below 930, Ollie will not only be coaching a team not going to the postseason again, but he also will lose two weeks of base salary. Two consecutive years of a sub-930 APR would result in possible termination or, at the very least, a suspension.

UConn also included strong buyout language, with Ollie owing the school $3 million if he leaves in 2013, $2 million in ’14, $1 million in 2015 and $800,000 in 2016. Conversely, UConn would owe Ollie the same amount each year if he were terminated for anything other than just cause.

Ollie said he had no problem agreeing to the tough APR details, claiming he’s committed to the full student-athlete experience. He also said he knows that he was being judged by how his players were responding in the classroom in the fall semester.

Ollie, who played point guard for Calhoun at UConn from 1991-95, was his former coach’s hand-picked successor. Ollie became an assistant at UConn in 2010 after 13 years as an NBA journeyman. He never previously had been a head coach on any level.

Ollie relished the opportunity to take over for his mentor, who plucked him from Los Angeles only to see him outwork higher-ranked recruits to get a starting job in his last three seasons for the Huskies.

Ollie was so well-respected in the NBA that he was lauded as much for his on-court play in places such as Philadelphia, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, as much as he was for his locker-room leadership and counsel to younger players. He was on a track to work in the Thunder’s front office for general manager Sam Presti had he not taken an assistant coaching job with the Huskies.

The Huskies, who finished a disappointing 20-14 last season a year after winning the program’s third national title, were picked to finish ninth in the Big East this season. The postseason ban pushed three players to transfer, including starting center Alex Oriakhi to Missouri. Two others left early for the NBA draft.

Motivating a team that couldn’t play in the Big East tournament, let alone the NIT or NCAA, wouldn’t have been easy for any coach, including Calhoun, Manuel said.

But UConn has started strong under Ollie, upsetting then-No. 14 Michigan State in the season opener en route to a 10-2 record.

The lack of stability in conference alignment also has been a tenuous subject, as the Huskies were passed over for a spot in the ACC by Big East rival Louisville.

“He has led this team,” said Manuel, adding that Ollie has done it in more ways than just wins and losses. “He came into a very tough situation in his first time as a head coach.”

Calhoun was on vacation and wasn’t at Saturday’s impromptu news conference. But Calhoun has been pushing behind the scenes for Ollie to get the full-time job for months. Ollie also has the support of former Huskies now in the NBA, which will prove critical in continued funding for a practice facility and recruiting.

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