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fromJose Carlos Menzel Lopez
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shut down
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The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, elected by an absolute majority, now has to clean up the Catalans.
Targeted marketing is everything. On the morning of December 15, the residents of Paseo de la Habana in Madrid could not believe their eyes. A 13-story building was almost completely wrapped in an oversized advertising banner. On it you can see: Joan Laporta, at that time still the former president of FC Barcelona, as well as the following slogan in blue letters on a scarlet background: Ganas de volver a veros. In German: “Want to see you again.”
You have to know that said skyscraper is less than 50 meters away from the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the living room of Barça’s arch-rival Real Madrid, who suffered numerous humiliations under Laporta’s reign at the Blaugrana from 2003 to 2010. And that the crisis-ridden and heavily indebted Catalans will soon have presidential elections. How well the banner was received at Camp Nou has been clear since last Sunday: Laporta was re-elected.
Barça a sporty wreck
The return of the eternal charmer could not have been more triumphant. With 54.28 percent of the 55,611 votes cast, the 58-year-old secured an absolute majority ahead of his rivals Victor Font (48, 29.99 percent) and Toni Freixa (52, 8.58). The Barcelona-born lawyer will go down in the history of the Spanish club as the 42nd president and will succeed the scandalous Josep Maria Bartomeu with a little delay – the elections scheduled for January have been postponed due to the pandemic.
The files of the former ruler are tough: Not only did he have to resign after a defamation campaign against dissimilar minded people like superstar Lionel Messi (33) became known, the 58-year-old is said to have paid the one million euros for the campaign to the control bodies of the club have led past, which is why he had to spend a day in the cell last week on suspicion of infidelity and corruption – for the time being. In addition, there is a mountain of debt of over a billion euros. Laporta is allowed to clean up now.
But if the fans of the Spanish FCB believe anyone can do it, it is him. Laporta stands for the club’s golden era, which culminated in winning the sextuple under coach Pep Guardiola (50) in 2009 and came to a crashing end eleven years later in the 8-2 win against Bayern in the Champions League quarter-finals. Since then, Barça has been a sporting wreck. In the Copa del Rey, the team of coach Ronald Koeman (57) is in the final against Bilbao after a heroic comeback against Sevilla (3-0 after 0-2), but in the premier class threatens after the 1: 4 debacle at home PSG the knockout round. The second leg in Paris is rising tonight (9 p.m.) and is already being hyped up as Laporta’s first miracle by the local press. The second thing one expects from the new and old rulers of Camp Nou revolves around Lionel Messi.
There is a threat of the superstar’s farewell (free of charge!) At the end of the season. But here, too, there is reason for hope. The fact that the six-time world footballer had himself photographed when he and his son Thiago threw his ballot paper in the ballot box at Camp Nou on Sunday is interpreted as the Argentine’s commitment to loyalty.
Messi should definitely stay
“Messi showed today that he loves Barça,” said Laporta after his election victory. “Messi himself won today too. He has already congratulated me. And all I can say is that I will do everything possible to make sure he stays. ”Laporta knows how to be in the limelight. Before he won the election, he was filmed demonstratively hugging a mannequin wearing a Messi jersey. The glamor must never be neglected in his appearances. His sentence is legendary: “You celebrate victories with women, cigars and champagne.” He also hits the political note of the club: in 2010 he ran as the top candidate for the Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència party, which campaigns for Catalan independence. In any case, on Madrid’s Paseo de la Habana, they know that they will see Laporta again soon. And not on a high-rise, but at the Clásico in the grandstand of the Santiago Bernabéu.
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