March 18 – New Barcelona chief Joan Laporta has pledged to do everything in his power to convince Lionel Messi to stay after being officially sworn in as the club’s new president on Wednesday.
With Messi watching on the sidelines at the inauguration of Laporta’s second spell in charge, the new president said he would try change the Argentine’s mind about leaving his boyhood club on a free transfer at the end of his contract this summer.
Messi almost left last season but had his request denied by former president Josep Bartomeu. But Laporta was also in charge from 2003-2010 during Barca’s golden period which included Messi’s rise to fame. And throughout his electoral campaign, Laporta stressed that he was the most likely of the candidates to persuade Messi not to go.
“I’ll do whatever I can to keep Messi from leaving,” Laporta told the 300 special invitees which included a number of other Barca first teamers.
Turning to Messi specifically, he added: “You know I love you, you know Barca loves you and if this stadium were full when you played, you wouldn’t want to leave. Whatever you decide is fine in the end, but we’ll try.”
Laporta’s other huge task is to address the dire club’s finances after inheriting debts of more than €1 billion caused in part by the pandemic but not helped by Barca having failed been knocked out of this season’s Champions League by Paris St Germain.
“It’s our priority to make the club sustainable economically and we have an immediate plan to do that,” Laporta said. “But we’re not scared by the situation and if we have to make big decisions in Barca’s interest then we will.”
In La Liga, Barca trail leaders Atletico Madrid by four points with 11 games to go and face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final next month.
Despite much speculation Laporta told coach Ronald Koeman his job was safe.
“Ronald, you have the board’s confidence,” Laporta added. “The team has improved and we have to get back to winning things. If we fix things financially, we will be competitive once again in the Champions League. We can win La Liga and the Copa del Rey this season.”
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