I WON’T LET MESSI JOIN MAN CITY
JOAN LAPORTA, BARCA’S PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL, REVEALS HIS PLAN
JOAN LAPORTA can’t imagine Lionel Messi at Manchester City. And as Laporta is the favourite to become Barcelona’s new president next month, that might be a very important detail.
‘I can only imagine him in a Barca shirt,’ he says, preparing for the January 24 election from his campaign headquarters in the heart of the city. ‘And I will do everything possible to make sure he continues to wear it with the No 10 on his back. I think it suits him very well.’
Most of the other candidates have sat on the fence regarding Messi’s future, or even hinted he might be worth more to the club off the wage bill.
But not Laporta. the man who first became Barcelona president in 2003 by promising David Beckham, then delivered ronaldinho instead, maintains a relationship with Messi and his dad Jorge.
‘What upsets Leo most is that they lied to him,’ he says of the summer fallout that saw Messi ask to join pep Guardiola at City.
‘I am lucky enough to be able to say that he (Messi) has told me, “You have never lied to me. You have always kept your word”,’ Laporta says proudly.
‘they (the former board) made him the one who was responsible for everything. they stayed in the background and he did not have to put up with that.’
Laporta is not one for staying in the background. On Monday, a 50-metre-high campaign poster was plastered on to the side of a building in Madrid just 100 metres from the Santiago Bernabeu.
His smiling face beams down from it, beneath the slogan, ‘Hoping to see you again’.
Some say the stunt is provocative — a bit like Graeme Souness planting the Galatasaray flag in the centre of Fenerbahce’s pitch. Laporta says it’s just a bit of fun and aimed at the many Barcelona supporters in Madrid.
His bravado is not to everyone’s taste, but you can’t help sensing he is a real football man.
He is not a fan of VAR. ‘Above all because it ruins the goal celebrations,’ he says. He believes a European Super League could ‘destroy the essence of the game’. And he’s not impressed by the notion that Messi could be wooed by a longer contract that includes an ambassadorial role.
‘the word ambassador is very ambiguous,’ Laporta says. ‘I know Leo, and he just wants to keep playing and win another Champions League.’ Will he seek Messi’s public approval? ‘people say to me, “Why don’t you talk to him?” But he knows what I think.
‘He knows that if I’m president, the first thing I’ll do is work out how I can convince him to stay until the end of his career.’
Messi’s future is not the only problem the incoming president must fix — £270million has been wiped off Barcelona’s budget this season because of the pandemic, although Laporta says: ‘the club has been badly governed. Coronavirus cannot be blamed for all of it.’
He believes they need to be smarter in the transfer market. the arrivals of philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele for fees that could total £280m look ill-judged.
‘I’m not entering into the sporting side because there are people whose opinions I want to respect, but in terms of money I think there was a big mistake — spending the £ 200m fee for Neymar in one go.
‘If you have lost Neymar, it’s because the club was already in a delicate situation financially. that money should have been used to balance the budget.’ When outgoing president Josep Bartomeu quit, his departing grenade was to announce that Barcelona had already signed up to the European Super League.
‘that was a product of desperation,’ Laporta (left) says. ‘He wanted to make it look like there were things that could still be exploited, so he threw that news out there which goes against all confidentiality clauses linked with this possible competition.
‘Everything that’s proposed will be studied, but things like this have been tried lots of times and it has never come off. We’re of the opinion that you can destroy the essence of football.
‘there’s also a proposal for a World Club Super Cup which could make more sense.’
When asked if — for all the talk over the financial situation — he might still have a signing up his sleeve, there is laughter and intriguing ambiguity. ‘If I have anything to say, I’ll say it at the right time,’ he states. But in the absence of a huge name, his selling points will have to be his own experience and know-how.
Laporta has done this before. He despairs at the classless way the club’s all-time third top scorer Luis Suarez was dumped in a one-minute phone call last summer, and recounts the moment he told ronaldinho he had to find another club in 2008: ‘I went to his house and said, “I hate to say this, but this has to end”. And we hugged, and we talked.’
It’s a more human approach, ‘ treating the players like little brothers’, as Laporta puts it. He will also play on his negotiating savy. There is concern about repayments on a proposed loan from Goldman Sachs being tied to money the club makes from commercial exploitation of a future stadium redevelopment.
But above all, Laporta is promising to do everything he can to make Messi stay. Asked if
‘Pep’s a friend, the best coach in the world. But I never asked him to leave City’ ‘We believe a European Super League could destroy the essence of football’
he believes the Argentine can keep playing for years to come, he replies: ‘With a competitive team, I do.’
He knows that making the team competitive will not be easy. He did it in 2003, but he had Johan Cruyff as an adviser and, from 2008, Guardiola as coach.
‘Johan I always have with me, because of everything I learnt from him. And with pep I have an open line,’ he says.
Does that mean he asked him to leave City and join him at Barcelona?
‘No. He’s a friend, I talk to him, and he’s the best coach in the world. But I knew his situation at City, so I never took that step.’ He won’t even be drawn on whether Guardiola could go back to Barcelona in the future. ‘the problems we’ll face are so big now that I can’t be thinking about what could happen in years to come. I’m worried about Barca, not things external to the club.
‘Obviously, I wish him, txiki (Begiristain) and all the people I love who are there all the best.’
But they can’t have Messi. Or at least he’ll do all he can to ensure they don’t get him this summer.
‘this is the biggest challenge of my life,’ Laporta says. ‘I started going to games when I was five. My grandfather and father made me a member when I was 10.
‘the club deserves to be put back on the right track. It should be economically solid. And we want people to fall in love with Barcelona again.’