Both Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola hit excelsior form as part of Team Laporta, too. Be you friend or foe, buckle up for the ride; this won't be a dull journey. Visit ESPN to view Barcelona SC squad and player information from all competitions, along with a season-by-season archive. For the squad, there will be improvements no matter what. So what lies ahead of Joan Laporta Estruch, a 58-year-old lawyer who, in his first spell as president, brought a phoenix-like resuscitation of his club from the ashes of what he inherited in 2003, is a period of the most intense, threatening, demanding and no doubt entertaining, dealing, statesmanship, corporate aggression, debt renegotiation and football empire rebuilding imaginable. To assess what the 30,000+ Barca socio/members who voted for him (out of 55,000 total votes cast) will get from their new "Presi" when the euphoria dies down, plus what's in store for the coach, the superstar the books and Laporta, let's break it down. Alongside squad call-ups and actual games played, the page also lists information such as minutes played and goals scored. Barcelona shock as Pique makes miraculous recovery to feature in squad for PSG ESPN - Sam Marsden, Moises Llorens. And irrespective of the fact that Koeman has discovered that the cupboard marked "talented players" is not in fact bare, the first team still requires some serious restorative surgery. So much so that Laporta's sworn enemy, anti-Cruyff fanatic Sandro Rosell, immediately won a landslide victory to replace Laporta as president. But consider this for "fan power." Posted 2,600 km (1,600 miles) south of Barcelona in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, instead of near his home city, he complained that the army was serving its recruits camel meat and he was punished with two weeks' solitary confinement. From that day to the present, Cruyff gave Laporta purpose. Barcelona Squad. Both Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola hit excelsior form as part of Team Laporta, too. Visit ESPN to view Barcelona Women squad and player information from all competitions, along with a season-by-season archive. Returning refreshed and ever further from his missionary fervour, he expected harsh punishment, only to find that his pals in military service had, somehow, conned their senior officers regarding Laporta's absence by roaring 'Present!' New FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta is confident the club can encourage Lionel Messi to stay. Of which there are many. He had "Mr. Fixer," Sandro Rosell, on one side of the throne, plus two extreme heavyweights of modern European commerce and footballing intelligence in Ferran Soriano and Marc Ingla on the other. Laporta's "Robin Hood" retort was to acquire some test answers and share them with all his classmates. From start to finish, Laporta had the guidance of a true genius: Johan Cruyff. Thus for all the vast range of challenges now facing President Laporta, the biggest one is him ensuring that autocracy doesn't surface, that second-class minds aren't introduced into the problem-solving groups, and that his judgement about when to delegate, and to whom, is either as brilliant or as lucky as it was during most of his first reign. Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi flowered and began to mark out their places in the club's all-time pantheon as, under the influence of Txiki Begiristain, Pep Guardiola was appointed and Barcelona's first 'Treble' was won. NAMEPOS NetoG I. PeñaG M. ter StegenG A. Urena TenasG J. AlbaD R. AraújoD S. DestD J. FirpoD C. LengletD Ó. MinguezaD G. PiquéD S. Ramos RodríguezD S. RobertoM S. UmtitiD Matheus FernandesM PedriM C. AleñáM S. BusquetsM P. CoutinhoM F. de JongM M. PjanicM R. PuigM M. BraithwaiteF K. De La FuenteF O. DembéléF A. FatiF A. GriezmannF L. MessiF F. TrincãoF. Laporta will talk about kids in the playground, him included, combing their hair the "Johan way," trying to mimic every flick and turn his aesthetic majesty produced for club or country. Now, Barcelona correspondent for ESPN Moi Llorens claims three more teenagers are likely to be integrated into the first-team squad over the summer to play in pre-season. On paper, it's an impossible, Herculean task, but impossible isn't a word in Laporta's vocabulary. Messi's future, however, is a different ball game. Koeman says it’s […] Messi's future, however, is a different ball game. Can Barcelona's new president keep Lionel Messi at the club? He did not, under any circumstances, achieve the successes of 2003-2010 on his own. Get instant access. Perhaps most startling of all is the fact that Koeman, not a man known for his diplomacy or love of "star player" culture, has unquestionably won respect and a good training attitude from the best player he's ever coached or played with. Rivaldo, ídolo do Barça, analisou o momento da equipe. He had Begiristain (now at Manchester City) navigating the club through a largely stellar time in the transfer market. He had "Mr. Fixer," Sandro Rosell, on one side of the throne, plus two extreme heavyweights of modern European commerce and footballing intelligence in Ferran Soriano and Marc Ingla on the other. They need direct reinforcements in defence, at centre-forward, at the tricky "pivote" role in midfield (the deep-lying playmaker) and left-back at bare minimum -- perhaps also at centre-half, too. Alejandro Moreno credits Barcelona for securing three important points despite a lacklustre performance. He's enormously ambitious, too. There's no question that both Manchester City and PSG still want to acquire Messi, and they'll produce persuasive, lucrative offers. There's no question that both Manchester City and PSG still want to acquire Messi, and they'll produce persuasive, lucrative offers. Laporta had given "the people" a historic measure of glory in a magnificent seven-year era, but once his mandate was up, the voters screeched disapproval at him by electing an outright enemy who stood on diametrically opposed principles. He went from zero to hero, quite literally, in unbelievably rapid time. That this rumbustious, colourful and voracious Catalan somehow transformed himself from an adoring kid, gazing in awe at a foreign superstar, into Cruyff's friend, lawyer and someone who successfully restored the great man's importance to FC Barcelona during the final 12 years of his life, before he succumbed to cancer in 2016, is already a warning to Laporta's enemies and opponents. When, in 1996, President Josep Nunez and Vice President Joan Gaspart combined to let imbecility reign, summarily sacking Cruyff as Barcelona coach (with one match remaining that season), Laporta, then 33 years old, was so furious and so energised by the injustice, that he formed an active protest group ("Elefant Blau," or "Blue Elephant"). And simply because the Catalan is a messianic character whose every breath exudes a heady tonic of confidence and bravado, the words "potential failure" shouldn't automatically be excluded from that list of what's in store for the new Caesar of Camp Nou. in various voices whenever his name was announced at the morning roll-call. Serie A Milan quer oferecer mais oportunidades a Neto. - Barcelona crisis: Timeline of scandals, Messi fall-out, debt and more. If you let Laporta tell it his way, he's the kid who fell in love with Johan Cruyff when the Dutchman moved to Camp Nou from Ajax in 1973, an era in history where Spain was still a dictatorship and Catalunya (where Barcelona exist) felt like an unloved, oppressed north-eastern province. Detailed. For all those of you who support a club owned by some billionaire foreigner, or by someone who feels that listening to or caring about the club's life-long fans is unnecessary, what Laporta managed to do with the dominating passion of his life must make you bilious with anger. Within seven years, his activist opposition had earned him the Camp Nou Presidency and precisely nine years, 364 days after Cruyff was sacked, Laporta, as president, sat in the Stade de France watching the team he and his board had assembled, with Cruyff acting as their unpaid "Professor of Football," win only the club's second Champions League trophy via a 2-1 defeat of Arsenal. (1:06), What Laporta being elected means for Messi, Barca's billion-dollar debt and squad rebuild, Dortmund star Haaland breaks more UCL records, angers Sevilla with celebration, Surreal shootout settles captivating tie between ISL's best entertainers, City can overcome United defeat to be one of the all-time greats, Real Madrid keep La Liga race wide open, lessons from Man United vs. Man City, how Bayern beat Dortmund, Havertz illustrates how Tuchel has saved Chelsea's season. - Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Things seem to happen around Laporta -- special, unusual things. Visit ESPN to view Barcelona Women squad and player information from all competitions, along with a season-by-season archive. Lionel Messi is scoring goals for fun, Ronald Koeman is successfully reconstructing FC Barcelona's first team, the Blaugrana dramatically overturned a 2-0 deficit against Sevilla in early March to reach this season's Copa del Rey final and so, as Joan Laporta starts his first week as Camp Nou president since he vacated the role in 2010, there's little wonder he's surrounded by a temporary state of heady euphoria. - Don't have ESPN? Man City, Man United, Juventus: Who will win the race to sign Haaland? Koeman has discovered true greatness in the shape of young Pedri and has galvanised by far the best Barcelona have seen of France forward Ousmane Dembele (signed from Borussia Dortmund in 2017) and Dutch midfielder Frenkie De Jong (signed from Ajax in 2019). The squad overview lists all player stats for a selected season. Meanwhile, former friends and allies deserted Laporta's board in droves, a motion of no-confidence went against him and was ignored so that the "golden era" from 2003 to 2010 ended with a feeling of greatness on grass, but division and debauchery in the boardroom. He played the part of leader but, above all, he was a lightning conductor. Laporta is the man who put the hutz In chutzpah and the "swag" in swagger. - Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team. Sunday's jigsaw of media images and soundbites -- Barcelona's captain taking his son to the Camp Nou to vote in the presidential elections, Laporta's pre-election promise that a vote for anyone else was likely to reduce the chances of Messi staying, and the new president's claim that Barcelona's superstar then called to congratulate him on Sunday night -- all hint that it's not going to be "adios, then" to their magical Number 10. Sign in to customize your ESPN experience Menu Bar Quickly find the information that matters to you most by selecting your favorite sports to appear in your personal menu bar. Sunday's jigsaw of media images and soundbites -- Barcelona's captain taking his son to the Camp Nou to vote in the presidential elections, Laporta's pre-election promise that a vote for anyone else was likely to reduce the chances of Messi staying, and the new president's claim that Barcelona's superstar then called to congratulate him on Sunday night -- all hint that it's not going to be "adios, then" to their magical Number 10. Laporta is the man who put the hutz In chutzpah and the "swag" in swagger. And, based on the green shoots this season, Spanish champions by 2022 at latest. Above all Cruyff, the genesis genius to whom Laporta owes everything, is lost forever. The FC Barcelona squad for El Clásico Quique Setién has named his 18 man squad for the Sunday's game against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu www.fcbarcelona.com 0 616. Visit ESPN to view Barcelona squad and player information from all competitions, along with a season-by-season archive. But, of course, it's not that simple. Mateo Villalba/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images 12h ESPN Barcelona got great performances from Jordi Alba and Lionel Messi vs. Osasuna, though 18-year-old Ilaix stole the show with his first goal. But consider this for "fan power." Even when he stripped to his underpants in Barcelona airport to protest at the security guards insisting on him going through the scanners over and over again (something he now admits to regretting), Laporta is Mr. Charisma. He's bright, persuasive, connected and handsome, and his resume reads well. Of which there are many. His interplay with Griezmann, Dembele, Martin Braithwaite, De Jong, Jordi Alba and, most particularly, Pedri, whom he treats somewhere between a little brother and a winning lottery ticket, has been superb. Even though the club's finances were a mess when Laporta first came to the presidency 18 years ago, it's still true that FC Barcelona's financial situation has never been worse than it is now. Meanwhile, former friends and allies deserted Laporta's board in droves, a motion of no-confidence went against him and was ignored so that the "golden era" from 2003 to 2010 ended with a feeling of greatness on grass, but division and debauchery in the boardroom.