Joan Laporta takes office as FC Barcelona president

Messi was at Laporta's inauguration at the Camp Nou Stadium on Wednesday and embraced the new president during the ceremony

March 18, 2021 01:10 pm | Updated 01:19 pm IST - Barcelona

New Barcelona president Joan Laporta during the inauguration ceremony on March 17, 2021

New Barcelona president Joan Laporta during the inauguration ceremony on March 17, 2021

With Lionel Messi watching closely, newly elected Barcelona president Joan Laporta took office and promised to do his best to convince the star playmaker to stay.

Messi was at Laporta's inauguration at the Camp Nou Stadium on Wednesday and embraced the new president during the ceremony.

One of Laporta's biggest tasks will be to try to change Messi's mind after he pushed to leave the club last season. He had his request denied by former president Josep Bartomeu but can leave for free when his contract expires at the end of this season.

"I'll do whatever I can to keep Messi from leaving," Laporta said, adding that he was certain the star player wouldn't be considering leaving if the stands weren't empty because of the pandemic.

Another big task for Laporta will be to restructure the club's finances amid debts of more than 1 billion euros (USD 1.2 billion) caused in large part by of the coronavirus pandemic.

This will be Laporta's second spell as Barcelona president. He was also in charge from 2003-2010, when Messi began playing at the club and when it had some of its greatest success.

Laporta also embraced captain Gerard Piqué, who also attended the inauguration along with Messi and Sergi Roberto. Coach Ronald Koeman also was at the ceremony.

"We were very happy then and we will be very happy again," Piqué wrote on Twitter.

"Congratulations Joan Laporta."

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.