Laporta returns to Barça hoping to repeat golden era

Joan Laporta, the man who oversaw Barcelona’s return to the top of the game between 2003 - 2010, has returned for a second spell as the club’s president after winning Sunday’s election by an enormous 57.6% of the vote.

Laporta finished comprehensively above the two other candidates, Victor Font (31.8%) and Toni Freixa (9.1%) in a vote that included 51,765 of the club’s 109,531 members, and also players such as Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.

Laporta replaces outgoing president Josep Maria Bartomeu who was arrested last week along with a number of his staff following the fallout of ‘Barcagate’ where the club allegedly hired a third-party company to orchestrate a smear campaign against players critical of their regime.

Barcelona have seen huge embarrassments in the Champions League in recent years, following the comebacks from Roma and Liverpool with an 8-2 loss against Bayern Munich and now a 4-1 defeat against PSG. 

Under Laporta, the club hopes to match the former highs of his stewardship that saw four league titles and two Champions Leagues, alongside the emergence of Messi Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Pep Guardiola.

Laporta, who once said every big decision he made was advised by Johan Cruyff, will be bringing his son Jordi on board, alongside Mateu Alemany as his director of football following his impressive work at Valencia.