On his way to the space where he had to wait for the election results, Joan Laporta wanted to stop in front of the statue of Johan Cruyff. And accompanied by his team, he took a photograph to remember that moment. "We owe it all to him," he said, his voice hoarse. He already knew he was the winner of the election, which saw him return to the Camp Nou presidency 11 years after he left it. With 57% of the votes, the Barcelona lawyer made a triumphant return to the club after winning an election whose high turnout surprised all candidates. Neither the pandemic nor the fact of voting without being able to attend a match, as was tradition, stopped the social base that defended the club's name, making the day a party, with over 56,000 votes. Thus, Laporta's success was legitimised, as he bettered the results of his first triumph, in 2003, when he obtained 27,138 votes, 52.57%.

There were no surprises in the last debate between the candidates for the Barça presidency. There were no hidden letters or promises that had not been heard throughout a campaign that has dragged on for seven weeks due to the pandemic. With an incisive, confident and penetrating Joan Laporta, the former president was the one who intervened the most and ended up dragging his rivals into a melee. An exchange of reproaches in which Víctor Font and Toni Freixa finally fell, despite the fact that they had been making efforts to keep their manners and stick to the script.

This Sunday's elections are probably the most emotional - and least rational - to date. Barça members value projects not only for the roadmaps presented, but also for the excitement they arouse. And, in addition to the decisions to recover the club's economic stability, the sporting sphere is the one that most worries the Barça fan. In the more than four months that we have been campaigning - counting the pre-campaign and taking into account the postponement of the elections - many different issues have marked the agenda: transfers, appointments, organisational charts... It is a reality that women's sport, which has had some space in this debate, and the ARA, in this final stretch, has wanted to contrast the proposals with those responsible for each candidacy.

Barça will finally have a president in a month's time. Joan Laporta, Víctor Font or Toni Freixa, one of the three, will take the reins of the club 133 days after the resignation of Josep Maria Bartomeu. The race has been long and exhausting for culés, who on the day of the elections will have spent a full year away from the Camp Nou (the last game with a crowd at the stadium was on March 7, 2020 against Real Sociedad) and have only been able to express themselves voting to censor the last president or in favour of their favourite pre-candidate. The wait will be long also for journalists, communicators and analysts who comment on azulgrana current affairs at the chaotic Barça HQ. But the fight above all will be exhausting for the three candidates, who have had to revise strategies and redouble physical and economic efforts after the elections were postponed from January 24 to March 7 due to covid and the inaction of Carles Tusquets's management to adapt the electoral process to the mobility restrictions.