"Only God knows what it took me to get here."
And
Joan Laporta
snorted.
Not just because I wanted to remember
Johan Cruyff
.
With that phrase, the Dutch legend rebuked former president Núñez in 1999 for taking three years to mount a tribute in which he even prevented the use of the club's crest on the shirt.
Laporta was referring, of course, to the tortuous path that has ended up returning him to the presidential chair of Barcelona.
The colophon you already know.
One morning
in
Berlanga
at a notary's office on Avenida Diagonal, where the cava and the histrionic singing of the Barça anthem mixed with the documents of the monstrous guarantee of 124.6 million euros that allowed the investiture.
Yes, the last day of the term.
Laporta always liked to explore the limits.
Also those of his enemies, to whom the irruption of a Badalonese energy magnate whom they did not control despite his success in the stock market -José Elías-, and an old ally of the
Cruyffista
cause
-Jaume
Roures-, it tasted like a burnt horn.
Laporta appeared in the box of the Camp Nou knowing himself the king of the scene.
No papers to read or propaganda prose to recite.
Improvisation and those messages that he usually memorizes and then fixes them on the listeners' meninges were almost always enough.
There was no babbling.
As if the deficient oratory of its predecessors, one of the hallmarks of the last decade of
Bartorsellism
, was one of the first evils to eradicate.
Laporta did not pay much attention, by the way, neither to
Josep Maria Bartomeu
nor to
Sandro Rosell
.
At the first,
Barçagate
has not erased his smile.
The second has discovered that where it is best is in the tramoya.
But he did greet the nearly 300 guests one by one.
From
Jaume Giró
, the former general director of the Fundació La Caixa who resigned at the last corner, to those political authorities who, in one way or another, will try to sneak into the club's story.
Like the new president of the Parliament,
Laura Borràs
, or
Pere Aragonès
, who will be president of the Generalitat when ERC and JxCat have just agreed.
If either of them expected Laporta to hint at the cause, perhaps they did not spend time attending the electoral campaign.
This is not about party politics.
"I will try to integrate all the people who love Barça, whatever their way of thinking," repeated the new Barça president.
That is to say, that message that has been repeated for weeks like a litany.
In more than half an hour of speech, Laporta had time for almost everything.
He joked during his parliament with some of his historical faithful from the time of the
Elefant Blau
- "
Tito [Castro]
, don't fall asleep" -;
he ironic with the
councilor
and spokesman for the Government,
Meritxell Budó
, for the nightly
revelry
of the notary's office in full curfew - "but Meritxell, it was not a party, eh" -;
and it put
Leo Messi
in a little trouble
, to whom a smile was warned under his mask: "Leo, Barça loves you very much. You have to convince yourself to stay."
Many of the messages already recited in the long campaign made an appearance in the inauguration speech: La Masia, the role of the Foundation, the references to
Gamper
and, above all, the need to rescue the club from its economic hell: " It doesn't scare us. We will have to make brave decisions, even if they have never been made. We have a highly trained team of professionals. "
Not only did
Mateu Alemany agree
, who will be the one who directs the football area while waiting for the arrival of
Jordi Cruyff to take place
.
José Elías was also seen to be pleased, dressed in a peculiar jacket and wearing a shirt with a skull -that is also a skull- by the German designer
Philipp Plein
.
Elías cannot enter the board of directors as he cannot prove the necessary five years of membership.
But his main collaborator will,
Eduard Romeu
, who has spent half his life dreaming of being the president of Barça (at least, yes, he will control finances as he does at Audax).
In fact, Romeu was one of those partners who made the coach trip to Seville in 1986 to see Barça miss penalties in the European Cup final.
Koeman was also very
satisfied
.
"Ronald, you know you have the confidence of this board."
It was one of the phrases of the afternoon.
Laporta, who has grown emotional over the years, could not hold back the tears when he recalled how his father also cried the day he was inaugurated president for the first time in 2003: "Wherever you are, help me do it right."
Only one woman,
Maria Elena Fort
, whom Rosell and Bartomeu made life impossible in their day with the action of responsibility, could sneak into that first photo of 19 managers.
There they made a hole at the last minute four that did not go through the polls (Eduard Romeu,
Angel Riudalbàs
,
Ferran Olivé
and
Joan Soler
), whose positions must be approved by the assembly of delegates.
There was no trace there of
Jaume Roures
, an external guarantor in a personal capacity.
And among the compliments, the cheers, the excitement and the joy, a warning from Laporta that no one should ignore.
Neither for those who beheaded the club and handed over the entity to anarchy and embarrassment, nor for those new companions who have arrived with their heritage ahead: "I have come to command."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
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Seville
Ronald Koeman
Josep Maria Bartomeu
Joan Laporta
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