Joan Laporta is once again president of Barça. As the Blaugrana statutes dictate, the Barcelona lawyer took office this July 1st after winning the elections held in March, and he did so with an inaugural speech in which he called for the "unity of Barça followers" and promised an "exciting" future with the consolidation of the project his board began in 2021. His term ends on June 30, 2031.

The name of Julán Álvarez is on everyone's lips, including the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, who spoke about him on the day he was sworn in again as the club's top official. In an impromptu press conference after the swearing-in ceremony, Laporta assured that the offer made by Barça about a month ago remains firm, but that "it is not unlimited in time".

Before renewing his contract with Barça until 2028, Hansi Flick made two things very clear. First, he demanded a paradigm shift in physical preparation, something that has been materialized with the departure of Julio Tous and two of his trusted professionals. And, secondly, he made it clear that to raise his team's performance in the Champions League, it was imperative to sign two forwards at their peak. "We need two," he stressed in a pool informal with journalists a few weeks ago. The coach expects that with the departure of veteran Robert Lewandowski, the attacking front needs to be reinforced with a top-level footballer, but he also observes an excessive dependence on Lamine Yamal, especially when essential players like Raphinha Dias are out for almost three months due to injury.

Jan and Flo are very different, but they have shared an apartment for years. Taking advantage of a few days of vacation, they have gone to Mallorca. The first night they went out to dinner and, afterwards, to party. Flo takes care of himself, and after having another glass of Ribera del Duero, he preferred to go back to the apartment. On the other hand, Jan, more of a bon vivant, first indulged in two good plates of macaroni, then had gin and tonics, and at the club, he drank straight from a Moët magnum that was circulating on the dance floor while he danced, sang, and hugged friends he had met that very morning. It was already daylight when he went to bed, tired but happy. When he woke up, Flo had already been doing his yoga exercises for a while, had eaten yogurt with cereal for breakfast, and was now answering some emails. Jan loves sobrassada and ensaïmadas, and there is nothing better than this combination to start the day if you are on vacation in Mallorca. Then he put on his swimsuit and dived into the pool, splashing Flo, who at that moment was on his third lap. Jan prefers the butterfly style. Flo protects himself from the sun with a hat under the umbrella. Jan, on the water mattress, closes his eyes while feeling the sun warm and tan him.

The FC Barcelona first team squad, the coaching staff, and the board celebrated the end-of-season dinner this Wednesday at the Restaurant Casanova Beach Club in Castelldefels, with about 150 guests. The gathering, initially planned as a celebration for the League and Super Cup titles, also ended up becoming a tribute to Robert Lewandowski, who announced his departure from the club on Saturday. In fact, he already said goodbye to the fans in the last match at Camp Nou against Betis. The Polish forward received recognition from his teammates and the coaching staff in an internal event, even though there is still one match left to play.

The real estate bubble had catastrophic consequences for Spanish football. Many clubs depended on construction companies or businesses linked to the property sector that went bankrupt, leading to global non-payments to players and social security. In 2012, the Spanish government said enough was enough and threatened to intervene in the football business. To protect themselves, the clubs decided to create a mandatory regulation that not only required accounts to balance, but also demanded that entities demonstrate at the start of the season that they would have sufficiently good budgets to pay all debts for the season. At that moment, financial fair play was born.

Barça's financial fair play went up in smoke in 2020. With the pandemic and closed stadiums, revenues fell and the club was left with no capacity to pay player salaries. In 2021, with Joan Laporta in the box, the decision to tweak the numbers and load up to 555 million in losses onto the fiscal year that had started with Bartomeu as president, only aggravated the problem to the extreme. Five years later, and despite having activated levers, having fine-tuned the wage bill, and having closed low cost, the club is heading towards another summer with problems to face the transfer market normally.

In a few weeks it will be five years since Hansi Flick's surprising resignation from the Bayern Munich bench. In April 2021, just eight months after winning a treble – including a 2-8 victory over Messi's Barça – with the Bavarians, and despite having a contract secured until 2023, the coach announced he would not continue in the role due to deep disagreements with the club's sporting director, Hasan Salihamidzic, who made a series of decisions he did not like, such as not renewing Thiago Alcántara or Ivan Perisic.

The meme of Joan Laporta dancing has already become part of popular culture. His euphoria is contagious: everything is excitement, optimism, chants borrowed from the supporters' section, macaroni and cava foam swirling at Luz de Gas. Who wouldn't want life to be like this every day? Who's the sourpuss who would choose not to have a good time? Pure hedonism, topped off with a 7-2 victory that catapulted them into the Champions League quarterfinals. "The best years of our lives" are here, and the Barcelona fans—or the 42% who voted—have overwhelmingly chosen this magnetic, fun, charismatic, and approachable man to continue pulling the club out of the hole dug by Josep Maria Bartomeu. This blank check confirms that Barça and Laporta are one and the same. "I am the state," said the absolutist French king Louis XIV. Exactly.

In a world where most major football clubs belong to magnates or petro-estates, Barcelona fans can be proud of having a club where the members still have the final say on who should lead it. Sunday's election process has been an example for the world, allowing for a comparison of management models and culminating in an undeniable victory for Joan Laporta over Víctor Font. The members voted for continuity, not change, and placed their trust in the president they believe will lead Barça to the highest levels of excellence as a club, both in terms of management and on the pitch. The members clearly understood that Laporta has laid the groundwork over the years to bring this objective closer than ever. The new Camp Nou fills Barcelona fans with pride and is envisioned as a source of income that will allow the club to maintain its independence. The commitment to La Masia, which has allowed the emergence of geniuses like Lamine Yamal, and the hiring of Hansi Flick mean that today Barça is, for many, the club that plays the most attractive football in the world, following in the footsteps of Guardiola's and Cruyff's Barça. The Champions League no longer seems like an unattainable dream, eleven years after their last triumph.

Shaking bottles of cava and smoking a cigar at Luz de Gas: that's how Joan Laporta ended his election night after to renew the mandate in the presidency of BarçaA nod to the past, as if mocking the many criticisms he had received for his methods, but summarizing in images the happiest moments of a leader who, like everyone, has great successes and shortcomings, but above all, possesses something that makes him special: charisma. Nothing new, and the main asset of a short but intense election campaign. If in 2021 he was the favorite and won the elections convincingly, on Sunday he doubled down with a landslide victory that surprised even his own supporters.

Laporta's Trump-esque dance celebrating victory, and Víctor Font's grimace feigning defeat, remind us that the world of top-level football is populated by individuals who know neither how to win nor how to lose. Speaking of Trumpism, the photo from a few days ago of Leo Messi smiling alongside Donald Trump says it all about the values ​​football is supposed to embody. The most trollish elements of the Catalan right delude themselves into thinking they've won something and erupt in tavern chants, because their weakness only allows them to project their insecurities onto the pitch of a stadium.

It was enough to listen closely to confirm, in the morning, that Joan Laporta was all but certain to win re-election. At least, that's what the vast majority of club members leaving the Camp Nou polling station were telling the pollsters. Few candidates navigate crowds as effectively as Joan Laporta. Politicians included. The Barça president was making the most of his people skills on an election day that confirmed what many already suspected: he exudes irresistible magnetism and is a seasoned political operator. Following the Barça maxim of doing the important work early, the polling tent was already packed in the morning and remained a hive of activity until the football match kicked off at 4:15 p.m. It was surely the only moment of respite for the club staff manning the polling stations. The calm before the storm, because, after the match, the queues returned, a steady trickle until nine o'clock, the closing time of the polling stations that had been open for twelve hours.

Over the last five years, Joan Laporta has become accustomed to being applauded. He entered the village At the Godó tournament, the children of wealthy families applauded him. He walked into a summer party on the Costa Brava, and everyone was taking selfies. He's ended up atop a bull at Mercabarna and on a tractor, he's sung with the gypsies of Gràcia, and he's made macaroni. Many of those applauding him today are the same ones who sneered at him some 10 years ago. Back then, they said Jan wasn't the same as before, that he didn't know what to do with his life after not shining much as a politician. Laporta seemed like a thing of the past, but he was destined to return as Barça president in the 2021 elections.

"The members vote to decide who will represent them, and that's unique in the world. It's a wonderful thing about our club. Thank you, Barça," said Joan Laporta after being declared the winner of the club's presidential elections. Barça members renewed their confidence in Laporta. The leader of Defensem el Barça (Defend Barça) obtained 68.18% of the votes, defeating Víctor Font, who fell short with 29.78% of the vote. In absolute terms, Laporta garnered 32,934 votes, while Font received 14,385. Blank votes represented 2.04% of the total. After a whirlwind campaign of just one month, Barça fans opted for Laporta's continuity model, who in recent weeks has focused his entire discourse on explaining how he has led the club's economic recovery over the last five years. Font's proposals, therefore, were not enough to convince the members, and the plebiscite he so fervently called for ended up turning its back on the "change" spearheaded by the Nosotros (Us) movement. Laporta will begin his third term at the helm of the institution.

The election campaign for the presidency of FC Barcelona has now ended. The day of reflection comes after candidates Joan Laporta and Víctor Font spent Friday carrying out their final campaign events to win over undecided voters. The promises, proposals, and projects now remain in the minds of the club's supporters, who will have to decide on Sunday whether to re-elect Laporta or opt for the change proposed by Font. The final day of the campaign served to deliver the last messages and tie the finishing touches to an intense month of events and commitments, culminating in a closing ceremony for each candidate. It was a way to honor and thank the numerous volunteers who supported the projects, from collecting signatures to providing logistical support for the presidential hopefuls. Joan Laporta chose La Pedrera for his final event. The president, seeking re-election, gave a nod to the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death at a party that brought together 250 friends. To shouts of "President, president," Laporta indulged in one last bask in the adulation of the crowd, during which, as he admitted, he would eventually become emotional.

Joan Laporta began his second stint as Barça president by leading an expedition to Paris in search of a quixotic comeback in the Champions League – the Blaugrana had fallen 1-4 against PSG in the first leg of the round of 16 – with a team still captained by Lionel Messi and featuring Ronaldo. Messi ended up leaving in the summer in tears and has become one of the defining figures of the season, especially due to the crossfire between Xavi Hernández and Laporta, while Ronaldo extended his tenure as coach only to ultimately depart unceremoniously. Like Xavi, his successor also left at odds with the former president before Hansi Flick's arrival. While among the major low points of Laporta's second term were disagreements with club legends like Messi, Koeman, and Xavi, his greatest success lies in the signing of the German coach.

Carles Planchart (Arbúcies, 1965), Albert Puig (Cambrils, 1968), and Francesc Cos (Terrassa, 1965), all three with a history at Barça and extensive experience in the world of football, are Víctor Font's picks for the club's sporting director position. All three advocate for maximizing the potential of Hansi Flick's current squad, emphasizing that the club already has excellent professionals working there, but that "more professionalism" and "better communication and coordination between the three key areas" are needed: the transfer market, performance – which includes everything from medical services, physical conditioning and injury prevention to nutrition – and La Masia.

The election campaign for the presidency of Barça ends at midnight tonight. Joan Laporta and Víctor Font will hold their respective closing events, in what will be their final attempts to win over members who are still undecided. They will likely be much more relaxed than they were on Thursday night, when Laporta and Font faced off on TV3 in the second and final debate before Sunday's election. There was anticipation to see how the two candidates would react, having already participated in a head-to-head debate on Monday – organized by the Godó Group. stilted, heated, and full of reproacheswhere mutual accusations overshadowed projects and proposals for the future. Thursday was more or less the same. Even with a bit more tension.

Ferran Olivé has gradually gained prominence at Barça during Joan Laporta's second term. A psychiatrist by profession, Olivé has been one of the key figures on the board, where he has served as treasurer.