The Round the World with Joan Laporta

Criticizing illusion and whoever generates it is difficult.It can be done, like everything, but it costs more than quaje. This is what happens to those who say that Joan Laporta is guilty of optimism. And, to top it off, they say he is lucky and that you never know how long that will last. Doesn't that sound like "how I wish I had his luck and could spread the optimism he transmits"? Well, there you go.They say, they say, they saythat, in 2003, when he first won an election for the presidency of FB Barcelona, he was fresh, interesting, and witty.They say, they say, they saythat now, after having won them in 2021, he is more neglected, that he seems slow to react and that he constantly improvises. I didn't catch any of that in the conversation at Casa Seat instigated byThe New Barcelona Postand that you already have available inYoutubeor on the main platforms ofpodcast.

Isn't he the one from twenty years ago? And who is? Not me, of course. And on several fronts I have gone down, but on some others, clearly and modestly, up. I have seen him like that, and it had been a long time since we could sit down and talk.

Since we met during that triumphant year with the excuse of a winning campaign whose slogan was Torna la il·lusió, I have been his admirer. Of everything? No, of course, I don't idolize. But overall he surpasses any other Barça president I have known. Especially in the aspect he claimed in his last campaign slogan: estimar (to love).

We love Barça. And it's true. Not only does he love Barça. He is generally loving. A sentimental man, of good character, who knows how to project it and make it contagious. And this is also leading. Uninhibitedly, with more moments ofrauxathat ofseny, but of those that drive what is most needed, since we haven't been overflowing with spirits and an optimistic outlook for a while. But of senyalso has. He puts it on, for example, and despite assuming that his love story with Barça has a cyclical point, of roda el món i torna al Born, by ruling out a Barça stage ending that is followed by political temptation. Of that, he has already had enough. There is no need to return to that ground. Instead, he has indeed taken the reins of Barça again at a low point for the club at all levels, and intends to lift it. It will not be easy, not at all.The critics of his optimism will say that it will be impossible, and that with him, even less so. But I remember that in 2003 (because I experienced it on the front line) they also said this. And he says he will do it again. Do what? Lift the club's spirits, first, to then lift everything else. Difficult. But it's harder to criticize from the couch someone who rolls up their sleeves. So tough will the mission be, he is clear that, afterwards, he will only have the energy left... to travel around the world. Do you see how he is an optimist by nature? If I were to get involved and succeed, in that club, I would automatically ask for several years of Walt Disney-style cryonization. In any case, if he succeeds and ends up daring to undertake this route, for a stretch, as I told him on Monday, I want to accompany him. With Laporta, at least, you always enjoy the journey.

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