New Barca president Laporta has breakfast with SPORT
His first appointment on his first day in charge was meeting us
With eyes only recently opened but with a wide smile, Joan Laporta appears for his appointment with SPORT. The first of the day, at 8.30 in the morning, on time. The first of the week ... the first as president of FC Barcelona.
He is greeted by a front page with a photograph of him in which he appears with outstretched arms and fingers raised in victory. "Heh, heh, heh ...‘ Laportazo’. That’s cool!” he says. And he begins to review his copy of the newspaper, sitting at an outside table in a bar on Diagonal, near his office, where fans pass by, greeting him, congratulating him or asking for a selfie. The day is depressing, raining, but it tastes glorious to him.
He looks at the news of the Madrid derby draw that opens the doors for Barça to La Liga. He orders a coffee and turns the pages. He remains anchored on some, such as the breakdown of his board or the graphic of the long history of club presidents. He likes them.
Rafa Yuste arrives, with an umbrella, and sits next to him. They have been friends for as long as they can remember and now so are their young children. Both, coming out of adolescence, barely remember what they experienced in 2003 and are the ones who pressured them the most to run again.
They have not missed a single event during this long campaign and yesterday, after Laporta's victory was realised, they embraced in a hug that they still remember. "It was very nice," says Laporta. Yuste nods.
“They insisted on it a lot because they wanted to experience it. It was not the case with his older brothers, who also remember the bad times,” added Joan.
It is inevitable to compare what happened in 2003 with 2021. "It was something more passionate," they say. It's time to start working to turn things around, like then. And Laporta is confident, convinced he can repeat it, although at this time of day his energy is scarce.
The night was long after the elections. After all the interviews and celebrations, Laporta walked with Rafa Yuste and Jordi Finestres through the club's museum, through to the Johan Cruyff corner.
It was like someone who goes to church to thank the Virgin for the help she has provided in recent weeks. It was intimate, almost private. No noise or merriment around him. It was his moment of peace, the end of a marathon day. Johan is very present in his day to day, in his memories, in his decisions, in his motivation. It was time to thank him.
At two-thirty in the morning, Joan would arrive home, not far from the Camp Nou. He was thinking of lying on the bed but it didn’t turn out like that. There, another party was waiting for him, his children and nephews, who had not been able to go to the Camp Nou. And Fermín, his friend who controls his diet. There was more revelry.
Not surprisingly, on Monday morning he was still hoarse in voice, eyes trying to open. “I have slept little, but enough,” he says as he looks at Eduard, his shadow when he was president and someone who now will be again. "I just want my bed," he replied when asked what he wanted to drink.
He has to cope though, because there will be no rest. ”Two interviews with radio station, antigen tests at the Ciutat Esportiva, a while at the office, lunch with all the members of the board and the executives in an open-air restaurant where we will celebrate yesterday's victory more and start working, meeting with Tusquets, going back to the office. And on Tuesday, to Paris!”
There is a photo of him sitting under the tent that protects him from the rain. "Let's see it?" he says to Valentí Enrich, a brilliant and tireless photographer. "It's dark," Laporta tells him. And it is true too for Valentí, like everyone else, that the night has been short. It is then when Laporta's force emerges. "Let's get out from under here.”
And he turns his back to the Diagonal to relive a unique moment, that of a night that saw him retake the Camp Nou presidential box. Together with his people, like Yuste, with his children whom he adores, and with Johan, always present.
