BARCELONA – Joan Laporta was again absent on Wednesday night from a debate between the candidates for the presidency of Barcelona, in which both Víctor Font and Toni Freixa openly criticized him for what they understood “lack with respect to the Barça member “, but he regained all the media attention this Thursday in a press appearance in which, taking advantage of the presentation of his project for the club sections, he did not deny his interest and willingness to sign Erling Haaland and revealed he had a chat with Gerard Piqué after Tuesday’s disaster against PSG.
The former club president between 2003 and 2010 and who leaves, according to polls, as the main favorite in the elections to be held on March 7 was saved enough to pronounce both the name of the striker Norway’s Borussia Dortmund, who on Wednesday scored two goals in their team’s victory in Seville, like the Catalan center-back, but when both were put on stage, made it implicitly clear that he was referring to to them.
Laporta reiterated that “I maintain the will to convince Leo Messi to stay at Barça. Within our means and competing against clubs that have been and can pay him much more, I will try to convince him to stay and help us build the Barça of present and future “and it was from here that Haaland appeared on stage.
‘If the staff needs an improvement, do they have letters ready to bolster it? Can you think of a player like Haaland? he was asked. And the former president, avoiding expressly referring to the Norwegian verbally, if he nodded and assured to be prepared to, if necessary, face a signing of these characteristics.
“Yes. I have all the cards ready to deal with any situation and if we have to improve the football team I have the cards ready to play-” he said, not wanting to delve further into the subject and quoting reporters for next week , when he will announce in another appearance his sports project with regard to the first team.
He also noted the relationship he has with some players in the squad by revealing that after Tuesday’s defeat he talked “with a player … And I saw him very affected, sunk and angry.” He did not want to give his name, but it was clear that he was referring to Gerard Piqué, the image he used precisely in a video of the presentation of the project for the sections.
“I spoke to a player after the game. He was sunk, angry, but he was precisely the one who set an example for the volleyball player to play out of an injury.
“We can’t leave them alone and we will be by their side and help them regain the winning mentality,” he proclaimed, acknowledging that after the defeat to PSG “I was also angry, with a huge disappointment, thinking only of leaving to go to sleep and let the hours go by … But the message is very clear: we have to be with our players “.
“We have to transfer all our support to the team at the moment and not enter apocalyptic scenarios yet. I don’t like to advance events: in the Cup against Sevilla there is a return match and in the League Atlético left yesterday leave two points … We need to support the team “resolved Laporta, who in the case of the Champions League was revealed against the collapse.
“In Paris we will go very calmly. Barça is a team that knows how to win but that knows how to be in defeat always maintaining dignity” he began by pointing out … To draw a point of rebellion later: If we did it once with PSG, it can be done again, despite being more difficult and this time away from home Let’s not forget that Barça is a club with epic moments in its history which brought us to glory. “