The debate between Joan Laporta and Víctor Font was like watching two people argue about survival versus theory. Laporta has led the club through dark times, not always perfectly, but inarguably he has improved the state of the club after the end of the Josep Maria Bartomeu era. Font presents a compelling case about what the future should be like, but it’s not enough to switch horses.
I am the first to admit that supporting Laporta requires a strong stomach. The way he handled Xavi’s departure was
a mess. It lacked grace and also showed the planning wasn’t always there. But that ended up with signing Hansi Flick, which has been a success.
The Lionel Messi situation still feels like a wound that won’t quite heal. To this day, Messi’s camp has completely fallen out with Laporta. It’s a shame to have your club’s biggest hero not on board. Messi is absolutely right to resent the treatment he got from Laporta, because he was strung along until the last minute.
And several cases, most notably the Dani Olmo signing, felt like a high-wire act, with the board seemingly praying for a favorable court ruling just to get him on the pitch. It is exhausting to follow a club that operates like a legal thriller.
But look at the alternative history. We came from the Bartomeu era, a period of such profound incompetence that it put a serious dent on the club’s identity. Critics like to say anyone could have done better than Bartomeu. That is true to some extent, but also lazy. It ignores the sheer weight of the debt and the psychological rot that had settled into the Camp Nou. Laporta stopped the bleeding, and he got the club back on its feet without the backroom scandals that defined the previous regime.
Flick has taken the kids from La Masia and some key signings and turned them into a unit that actually scares people again. The defeatism is gone. The stadium feels alive. Font has good points about modernization, but Laporta has the results, even if there is a lot more room to grow on the results front, too.
We are at a crossroads where “steady” matters more than “new.” Laporta is loud, and he is sometimes messy. Font has good points that the club could modernize in some aspects. Laporta is far from a technocrat, however, he is a president who understands the weight of the badge. He has navigated the ruins of the last five years and put a product on the field that he can actually be proud of.
And remember, Barcelona is a club that runs on passion, not just spreadsheets. Laporta has made notable mistakes, and he shouldn’t see re-election as an endorsement of everything he has done, without exception. But he has earned the right to finish the job he started.
