CHICAGO – The Chicago Cubs and Carlos Zambrano finally have a deal.

The ace right-hander agreed Friday to a five-year, $91.5 million contract extension to stay with the only team he’s been with his entire career. The deal includes a vesting option for a sixth season.

Zambrano could have tested the free agent market and perhaps gotten a bigger deal but he wanted to stay with the team, even as negotiations slowed when it was announced this spring the Cubs could be sold after the season.

He said his goal now is to get the Cubs to the World Series. They haven’t been there since 1945 and haven’t won one since 1908.

“I feel happy right now, feel comfortable right now but it’s not enough,” Zambrano said at news conference. “I have a mission to complete and I have a way to go with my teammates to lead this team. … It’s not enough when you retire and don’t have the ring.”

Zambrano (14-9) had hoped to have a new deal in place by opening day. He extended the deadline but contract talks stalled after Tribune Co., which owns the team, announced in April that it was selling itself for $8.2 billion to Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell. The Cubs are expected to go on the auction block at the end of the season.

The 26-year-old Zambrano acknowledged the pending sale of the team had complicated negotiations but said last month he wanted to stay with the Cubs.

Zambrano, who signed a one-year, $12.4 million deal during spring training, could have been a free agent after the season. A two-time All-Star, he has a 78-51 career record.

General manager Jim Hendry said Tribune Co. higher ups and president John McDonough had allowed him to move forward and make the decisions on big contracts he felt were necessary to turn the team into a winner.

He said Zambrano remained patient even as his wait for a new deal dragged out because of the uncertain future of the team and ownership.

“I’m sure there were frustrations and I think he understand I was telling him the truth why it couldn’t be done,” Hendry said.

“It would have been a lot easier for him to say, ‘Well you know what, I’ll give you a good shot in November, but I’m going to go out and see what’s out there.’ It’s a good ending to something we wished we could have finished in March, but circumstances that even the company couldn’t control obviously were involved. And it was nobody’s fault.”

The emotional Zambrano hasn’t looked like the Cubs’ ace in his previous three starts, failing each time to earn his 15th victory.

He left an outing against the New York Mets in the sixth inning with heat-related cramping and was driven out by Houston in his next start after giving up seven runs in 5 1-3 innings.

On Tuesday night, he allowed 13 hits and six runs in seven innings with two walks and no strikeouts against the Cincinnati Reds.

He’s had an eventful season, getting into a fight with catcher Michael Barrett and breaking a bat over his knee. Against the Reds, he got so angry after grounding out, he slammed his helmet to the ground and it bounced all the way into right field.

His familiar antics on the mound include pumping his fist after getting an out. In one game, he did a complete spin in front of the mound.