Joan Laporta is once again FC Barcelona President. Laporta beat his opponents Victor Font and Tony Freixa with a fine margin to become the president for the second time.
In an election that saw 55,676 voters, according to the club’s official website, Laporta secured 29,830 votes (57.63%). Font placed second with 16,484 votes (31.84), while Freixa managed 4,724 (9.13%).
🗳 2021 ELECTION 🗳
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 7, 2021
The final tally of the FC Barcelona presidential election with 100% of the vote counted. pic.twitter.com/dVS33mjpXe
Laporta, 58-year-old lawyer, headed the Blaugranas from 2003-2010. During his first reign as president of Barcelona in 2003, Laporta made some serious business in terms of attracting some of the biggest players in world football at that time including Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Deco.
He also appointed Pep Guardiola the manager who won the sextuple in the 2009-10 season.
Laporta will be taking over from interim President, Carlos Tusquets, who was installed following Josep Maria Bartomeu’s resignation as President in October 2020, fearing a vote of no confidence.
After getting elected, Laporta talked about the club’s legend and current captain Lionel Messi and said he surely wants the Argentine to stay at the club.
“Twenty years ago a little boy called Leo Messi made his debut with Barca’s youth team. Seeing the best player in the world come out to vote today is a clear sign of what we keep saying. Leo loves Barca,” Laporta said.
“The best player in the world loves Barca and I hope that is a sign that he will stay at Barcelona, which is what we all want.”
Messi on Sunday cast his vote at Camp Nou for the presidential to which Laporta said seeing the six-time Ballon d’Or winner vote show his love for Barcelona.
“Seeing the best player in history come to vote with his son and take part in this FC Barcelona election, shows that Leo loves Barça. We are a great family and hopefully, this will serve to encourage him to continue at Barça,” Laporta said.
Laporta also displayed his respect towards the other two candidates and talked about the upcoming challenges.
“Great respect also for the other two candidates, Víctor Font and Toni Freixa,” he said.
“For Barça to be economically sustainable again and for Barça to be happy again. We have many challenges ahead of us and we will surely achieve them.”
“We are a great family, we have a great feeling. We all have to work together to face the challenges ahead.”
“What we can do most for Barça is to love it, to love it more than ever. Long live Barça and long live Catalonia,” he concluded.
