BARCELONA – Joan Laporta won the presidential election in Barcelona last Sunday, made her virtual debut with Ronald Koeman’s team in Paris and began shaping the desired club in the near future, where her first big goal is to sign Erling Haaland.
Focusing on the interest in resolving the critical economic situation suffered at the Camp Nou, the new president does not neglect the sporting aspect.
And if he has already understood the need to “retouch the team”, as he stated during the election campaign, once in command, his team’s direct collaborators have confirmed ESPN, he intends to take the rest … As far as his chances go.
These changes should not be many, but there is a name that stands out above all: Erling Haaland.
And if before the election Laporta warned that Barça should be “able to sign what is necessary”, once in charge of the Barça ship, he understands that the signing of the Norwegian footballer would be a major success, similar to the one that in his day He customized Ronaldinho, who will relaunch the team and the club in all aspects.
“You have to know exactly the situation of the club in all respects,” explained one of his candidates, recalling that Barça’s moment is not so different from what Laporta met in 2003, but now, almost three months before the end of the season. , “There is more time to change things”.
The new president, who is expected to take over the club on Tuesday, has done many tasks during the campaign. He signed Ferran Reverter as the new CEO, recruited Mateu Alemany to be the football director, where he will work in collaboration with Jordi Cruyff and, although he did not want, for obvious reasons, to maintain any contact with Ronald Koeman, he was interested in the spirit of the team and spoke with a few heavyweights in the locker room, who conveyed, in his opinion, the needs of the team.
Channel Esport 3 revealed on Wednesday that Laporta’s main goal is to sign Haaland and that, despite the enormous difficulty of reaching him, he does not close any doors. The Norwegian striker has an agreement with Borussia Dortmund where he could leave the club for 75 million euros … Starting in June 2022, the advancement of his incorporation by one year would be understood as impossible, unless his club would be obliged, for financial reasons, to agree to advance this scenario by one year.
What would be that scenario? Hans-Joachim Watzke, the president of Borussia, agreed a few months ago that if the team is left out of the Champions League “we will have to sell our silverware” in a clear reference to Haaland or Jadon Sancho, the two great future stars of his team. And given the current situation in the Bundesliga, sixth in the standings four points from fourth place, it is not a chimera to believe that this could happen. He would enter the Champions League only next season, winning the title in the current one, in which he is currently ranked in the quarterfinals.
For Barça, however, the operation would exceed 100 million euros, taking into account the large commissions to be divided between Haaland’s father and his representative, Mino Raiola, who has already earned cash with their permit from Salzburg to Borussia.
There, Laporta considers that the good relationship he has with Raiola is an asset in his favor, which began with the signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2009 and brought the representative a profit of almost eight million euros and was maintained throughout years. In the summer of 2015, without going any further, Raiola proclaimed that the signing of Paul Pogba by Barça “will be very possible if Laporta wins the elections”, leaving behind a trip of Albert Soler (from Bartomeu’s candidacy) to Torino to talk to Juventus.
SLIMMING MODEL
Haaland’s arrival is considered a major challenge not only due to the club’s delicate financial situation to cope with the signing, but also the presence of other important clubs interested in the player (with Real Madrid in the foreground), due to the need to reduce the table. wage labor and hence the work, not easy, to give way to more players who would not be included in the new sports project.
The names of Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, Neto or Junior Firpo come on stage in an obvious way … Although they may not be the only ones in the revolution that the new Barça leadership is raising, ready to make an absolute effort to add to what is considered a differential footballer in the coming years.