I love you and Barça loves you – Laporta hopes to convince Messi to stay

Barcelona president Joan Laporta made a public declaration of affection from him and the club to Lionel Messi while hoping to convince him to stay at the club beyond the end of the season when his contract expires.

Laporta begins a second stint as Barcelona president after a successful first spell between 2003 and 2010 and two of his immediate responsibilities is to convince Lionel Messi to stay at the club and also stabilise the club’s finances with debts rising to over a billion Euros.

“We will, for example, try to convince Leo to stay at the club,” Laporta said during his inauguration speech, an event that had in attendance Messi and teammates at Camp Nou.

“Sorry Leo… I will do my best and he knows it! We’re going to try, of course, to convince him to stay here because he’s the best player in history. Sorry, but I love you and Barcelona also loves you. If this stadium were full, you wouldn’t want to go.”

“Now we need to do things well. We’ll do what we can so you can be proud of Barcelona again,” he said on the club’s economic situation. “The economic situation is a priority for us. We need to make the club sustainable. We have a plan for this. We will take decisions in Barcelona’s best interests.

“Stability is key and we can improve all the sections to make them more competitive. But, we must maintain stability.”

Laporta was sworn in after fulfilling the mandatory condition of €124.6m which was reportedly sponsored by Spanish media company Mediapro. 

Barca won four Spanish LaLiga titles, two UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup in Laporta’s first presidency.