The culé president boasts of the attractiveness of the blaugrana club after the signing of Koundé and does not rule out that there are more
He attributes the criticism about spending on incorporations to “ignorance” about the entity’s economic status
The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laportasaid this Thursday in New York that the club is putting together a “very compensated team” and assured that the “players want to come to Barça again“After the signing of the French Jules Koundé that was known today.
In the last stop of the US tour, Laporta led an event to celebrate the Barça club’s alliance with ACNUR, the refugee agency with the UN, together with coach Xavi Hernández and historical and current players, such as Thierry Henry, Juliano Belletti , Jordi Alba or Sergi Roberto. “We want to be part of the solution” (to the refugee crisis), said in a speech in English the president, who signed an agreement last month in Geneva whereby the players’ shirts now bear the UNHCR logo, and the club will donate funds and equipment for four years for the agency’s projects in various countries.
Once that presentation was over, Laporta attended the media and expressed satisfaction for the arrival of Koundé, thanking the decisions of the club’s board to “strengthen” the squad and make a team “that can participate in all competitions with the intention of winning them.” “I have the feeling that we are working well, the players want to come to Barça again. We are doing a well balanced team and there is a lot of competition, with a minimum of two players per position who are very good”, he explained.
Laporta, in that sense, maintained that he is “trying to comply with the coach’s will” in reinforcing the forward, midfield and defense, and did not rule out the possibility of “some more incorporation” that “it would surely focus on the defensive line”.
Asked about the alleged concern or anger of his rivals over the latest signings, he attributed it to “Ignorance” about the economic status of the club and he made a clinical simile: last year he was “terminal”, then he went “to the ICU” and now he has “left the hospital with levers”. Thus, he alluded to the entity’s “high-value assets” and to the recent sale of part of FC Barcelona’s television rights in an agreement “for 25 years, not 50, as they proposed” and that will allow it to score a accounting profit of 667.5 million euros.
He also ruled on the Argentine Leo Messi about the one who suggested a possible return a few days ago that was ruled out for the moment by Xavi: “It is an aspiration that I have as president and I would like it to happen, I have been co-responsible for that ending that I consider provisional.” “Messi’s stage at Barça did not end as we all wanted, it ended very conditioned by economic reasons and we have a moral debt, in that sense we would like the end of his career to be with the Barça shirt and applauded by the fields at which go,” he added.
Today’s appointment, which took place inside the Rockefeller Center, summoned the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, who highlighted the footballing character of the local population and applauded the fact that the club not only goes out to win on the sports field, but also at “field of life”, helping the United Nations.
In the absence of the team facing the New York Red Bulls this Saturday at their stadium, the Red Bull Arena in Harrison (New Jersey), a dozen impatient fans came to wait for their idols to leave at the gates of the center, all wearing blaugrana shirts or accessories.