Joan Laporta has won his bid to return as FC Barcelona’s president following his victory at the polls on Sunday in Catalunya.
Laporta who previously held the top job at the Club between 2003-2010, won the election with 54.28% of votes cast.
The 58 year-old beat Victor Font (29.99%) and Antone Freixa’s (8.58%) combined votes (21,448) by 8,736 votes.
🗳 2021 ELECTION 🗳
The final tally of the FC Barcelona presidential election with 100% of the vote counted. pic.twitter.com/dVS33mjpXe
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 7, 2021
Former Barcelona captain, Carles Puyol was among the first to congratulate Laporta on his victory.
Felicitats @JoanLaportaFCB. Sort i encerts. Gran imatge veure els tres candidats junts. @tonifreixa @victor_font 👏👏👏 Visca el Barça 💙❤️
— Carles Puyol (@Carles5puyol) March 7, 2021
Laporta will join Ronald Koeman‘s squad on their midweek trip to France to face Paris Saint-Germain in midweek, and he has already issued a rallying message to inspire the team to turn the tie around in Paris per Feargal Brennan [football-espana]
Laporta confirmed during his election campaign he will immediately focus on negotiating a contract extension for Lionel Messi, with the Argentinian’s current deal expiring at the end of the campaign.