When Joan Laporta decides to speak, he does it well. In a long interview with CBSthe president of Barça not only mentioned the potential return of Lionel Messi to Catalonia, but also all the news of the Blaugranas, passing by the rumor Cristiano Ronaldo or the sale of Frenkie de Jong. Here are Joan Laporta’s best statements.
The Cristiano Ronaldo rumor before Robert Lewandowski
“Well, that kind of story is part of the summer window process. There’s always a lot of news. But in the end, the truth is that we wanted Lewandowski. We have a very good relationship with Jorge Mendes. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s one of the best players’ agents. He knows how to do his job and I respect him. In this case, we decided to go for Lewandowski and we knew he was crucial for our success. So we went to Bayern instead. That’s the reality. The other subject [Ronaldo] is simply part of the “little history” of football. It’s a great story, but you’ll still hear a lot of conflicting news about it.”
Bernardo Silva
“He’s a very good player. But I have to respect the fact that he belongs to Manchester City. I have a few friends there, like Pep Guardiola, Tixi Bergstein and Khaldoon Al Mubarak. There are a lot of people that I know.”
A problem registering recruits?
“With LaLiga, nobody knows. But we try to do things in full respect of the rules. Sometimes there are different interpretations. We will see what happens. But we have made huge efforts to increase our income “We brought in more than €600m in about 45 days. I think LaLiga will understand our efforts and our intention to play by the rules and I hope there won’t be any problems.”
The future of Frenkie de Jong
“The first thing to say is that we want Frenkie to stay at Barcelona. We like the player and the human being that he is. I want him to stay at Barcelona. He is a high quality player and a good guys. I also know he wants to stay. (…) Everything we do with Frenkie is the same as with the rest of the team. The new recruits who arrive have adapted their salaries to the new structure. But Frenkie has a contract and we respect it. We cannot force him to take a pay cut. It is his decision. We are trying to run the football club in a careful and sustainable way. So we have to have these discussions and we do it in a calm and thoughtful way. We have explained the situation and we are grateful to all the players who can help us. It was the same with Dembele and I am very grateful to him. And after months of discussions , he accepted a renegotiation of his salary and he can be proud of his d decision.”
Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso
“They are under contract at Chelsea and we respect that and the new owner. I don’t want to talk about players who belong to other teams. I respect Cesar and Marcos as footballers. They are very, very good players “They show their quality and talent at Chelsea. But I don’t want to talk about them, out of respect for Chelsea.”
to summarize
In a long interview granted to CBS, Joan Laporta addressed many topics that are in the news at Barça. Whether it’s the Cristiano Ronaldo rumor, the sale of Frenkie de Jong or the XXL transfer window of the Blaugranas, the Barcelona president has not evaded anything.
