BEVERLY HILLS, March 18, (THEWILL) – Barcelona’s new president properly assumed his position atop the Catalan club on Wednesday as he was sworn in and in his initial presentation, Joan Laporta made a direct plea to the club’s most iconic player, the Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, to remain in the fold of the Spanish side.
Prior to being sworn in, Laporta faced a late scramble to find the prerequisite financial backing to take over at Camp Nou. However, he succeeded after a false start and was sworn in as president to begin to implement the necessary changes he promised throughout his campaign for a second time as club president.
Part of his presentation involved a discussion of the two-time president’s view for for the club going forward. As there was no way to approach that subject without discussing the troubling Messi contract issue, it was not long before the Argentine’s name cropped up in the presentation, with Messi in the audience.
“In our first spell we had the best players in Barça history, but if we were successful it was because we had stability,” Laporta noted, while making direct eye contact with Messi and even dropping him a little wink.
“It is Barcelona’s unity which gives you stability and I invite everyone at Barcelona to think about what they can do for Barça. I am here to make decisions, like convincing Leo to carry on, taking advantage of the fact that he is here. He knows that.
“You know the affection I hold for you and we will do whatever it takes to keep you here. You know you cannot leave, Leo. We will not be able to do it alone. As our anthem says, we are strong all together. More so in these most difficult times. We know how to do it.”
Laporta reiterated part of his promises :”When the pandemic is over our revenue will return. That will be fixed. There will be strong leadership, because I am well-accompanied. We will make decisions. To defend the club you have to live and breathe it and we do that as much as possible.”
From the moment the new president announced his desire to return, he has not stopped talking about Messi. The single-minded way he has engaged the player has shown that he intends to do whatever it takes to convince the 33-year-old to extend his stay at the Catalan club.
Although the Laporta’s focus remains on making certain that Messi stays, the club is looking around for the man to fill his shoes when he does eventually leave. This is why Barca are ahead of other clubs in the race for Racing Club’s 16-year-old forward Gonzalo Sosa, who has been given the genius nickname ‘The Talented One’.
Messi is yet to decide whether he stays of goes but will now have an incentive, with the emergence of Laporta, to give Barca some more time of his illustrious and productive spell at Camp Nou.
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