Laporta: “Messi has voted because he loves Barça”

At the stroke of midnight Joan Laporta Estruch, 58, who returns to the Barça presidency more than a decade later through the front door (30,184 votes), appeared before the media at the Auditori 1899. Laporta had had time to chew the victory since the TV3 poll had already given him the clear winner. After celebrating in his box, and bathing in champagne with his Board, he appeared at 0:07 hours on the Auditori platform.

He brought up his entire Board of Directors and his campaign team and began his speech with a broken voice, full of thanks, also to those who are no longer there. And with two names that guide you, Cruyff and Messi: “Johan inspires us and he has surely helped us. This candidacy is uncomplicatedly Cruyffista and Barcelonista”. Then he struck a chord with Messi: “Today it was 20 years since a boy made his debut with Barça And seeing that the best player in the history of football has come to vote with his son and has participated in this Barcelona festival means a lot. Messi loves Barça and that is very significant. And hopefully it serves to encourage him to continue at Barça, which is what we all want. “ And a final binding message: “We have proposed, that the happiness returns to the barcelonismo; we love Barça a lot that we need”.

The new president of Barcelona conceded at dawn his first interview as the club's top president on TV3 in which he focused on the hope that Messi will continue at Barcelona.

Laporta explained that “Leo who has given us a lesson in love for Barça, has shown that he loves the club. It is significant that he has come to vote, and more with his son, that means that he loves Barça and that he understands that we are a family. I know that he will value our proposal because he is fond of us ”.

The first thing Laporta plans to do in his new stage as president is “congratulate the employees for what they have done these months, then encourage Koeman and the players and make it clear that the season is alive, we know that the situation is precarious in many respects, but we will reverse this to compete with state teams and other teams to the ones that I want to return to. Let it be clear that the rivals are not the other candidates, who are Barça fans, they are others ”.

Regarding the management of the previous meeting, he assured that “I will ask for explanations, but there will be no blood, there will be responsibility, I will not be with the rear view mirror because that is an excuse and it is cowardly to look back.”