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Barcelona president Joan Laporta has told fans he is hoping to be able to announce some much-needed “good news” which could provide the Catalan giants with a welcome boost after a tough start to the campaign.
Laporta spoke to RAC1 on Friday and hinted that his good news could well be the announcement of a new contract for starlets Pedri or Ansu Fati. The 58-year-old said the club is close to securing the futures of both players, as reported by Diario Sport.
“We are in the process of renewing the young people. If it can be, next week you will have good news,” he said. “The youth contracts were ending soon. Pedri’s renewal is very advanced and hopefully we can announce it next week. Ansu’s is on the right track. We’re also very happy with Gavi. The president of the Spanish Federation called me yesterday to congratulate me. Sergi Roberto, on the other hand, has already lowered his salary. We are restructuring his contract, there are only some fringes to close.”
The news will be welcomed by Barca fans as both Pedri and Fati have emerged as key players for the Catalan giants despite still being in their teens. Pedri arrived from Las Palmas in summer 2020 and quickly became a regular, while Fati is one of the club’s brightest young stars and has just returned from a lengthy injury lay-off.
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Laporta Hoped Messi Would Play For Free
Laporta also spoke about Lionel Messi’s exit from the club in the summer and admitted he had hoped the Argentina international would agree to play for free in order to be able to continue his career at the Camp Nou, as reported by Marca.
“When it came to making the decision, I thought I was doing the best thing for Barcelona. I hoped there would be a change and that he’d say he’d play for free, but we cannot expect a player of his level to do that,” he said. “We have a very good relationship. I knew that if we recovered financially we would compensate him, but we couldn’t make demands knowing the offer he had in Paris.”
The Barcelona president also believes that although Messi did want to stay he already had a big offer from French side Paris Saint-Germain.
“There was a desire for him to stay, but pressure because of the offer he had. He knew that he’d go to PSG if he didn’t stay,” he added. “He’ll go down as the best player in the history of Barcelona and I want that to be preserved. Everything indicates that he had the PSG offer before leaving Barcelona. We knew he had a big offer.”
Laporta Says Koeman ‘Deserves Support’
Laporta also spoke about under-fire coach Ronald Koeman. The president confirmed before Barca’s last match, a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid, that the Dutchman would be staying on despite intense speculation regarding his future.
Koeman now faces a tricky fixture list with games against Valencia, Dynamo Kiev, and Real Madrid to come immediately after the international break, and Laporta says he deserves some support.
“He’ll stay. When things happened that we didn’t want, we were all a little discouraged,” he added. “Having spoken to different people I’ve come to the conclusion that he deserves a bit of support. He’s a Barcelona fan like all of us, he loves Barcelona. He decided to come in a difficult time for the club.”
Laporta may be backing Koeman for now but could be forced into a change of mind if results and performances do not improve quickly, starting when Valencia arrive at the Camp Nou on October 17.
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