FC Barcelona has enjoyed enormous success in the past two decades thanks to a handful of generational icons on and off the field. The club is the second most successful club in Spain behind Real Madrid.
The footballing success at the club in the last two decades can be attributed to a few names such as the current club president, Joan Laporta, Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Lamine Yamal who is out to write his name with gold on the club’s history book.
Laporta has enjoyed two eras of presidency at the club, the club president first came in the early 2000s when the club was suffering and on the brink of bankruptcy. He came in and the club witnessed a turnaround that has become a hallmark of it.
How did Joan Laporta achieve such a magical turnaround? Thanks to his managerial skills and the love he has for the club, Laporta recruited some Spanish greats who have an extensive understanding of the round leather game off the field. He came in prepared.
His recruitments, as well as some club prodigies who graduated from the famous club academy, La Masia changed the fortunes of the club for good.
He came with a board willing to serve the club for the love of football. His major signing who changed the fortune of the club is the Brazilian wiz called Ronaldinho. Like Laporta, the Brazilian is equally responsible for the success of the club.
Ronaldinho was a beauty to behold in his heyday. He made neutrals and fell in love with football. It is often said in the footballing sphere that the Brazillian has no haters. But why should he? For a man who plays the beautiful game with a smiling face.
The Brazilian magician left several indelible memories in the hearts of Barca fans. One of such memories is his debut for the club. Where the then goalkeeper, Victor Valdez threw a long ball from the box to Ronaldinho. The Brazilian got the ball from his half and made a blistering run, dribbling two markers before releasing a thunderous shot to score his first goal for the club.
Aside from the Brazilian, Laporta also recruited some footballing greats like Eto and Alvez. The Cameroonian would also go on to become a household name among FC Barcelona fans.
Joan Laporta’s Signins that shaped the Fortune of the club
When he campaigned to become the club’s president, Laporta promised to bring in some interesting footballers and Ronaldinho was the lead stay player the president promised to sign. Many were sceptical about his chances of landing the genius who was the rave of the moment then.
During that period other big clubs were also interested in the Brazilian. Manchester United were particularly interested in him.
Joan Laporta came at the right time to rebuild the club to give Real Madrid a run for their money. The Spanish capital club have enjoyed success both domestically and in Europe.
Ronaldinho thought that to become great, you have to conquer and stand on the shoulders of giants. All these and a few other reasons prompted his decision to head to Spain.
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Then he plays for a French outfit. In Ronaldinho’s move, FC Barcelona and Spain’s move was France’s loss. But in general, the move was good for the game. With his move to Spain, fans were sure to see more of the magician given the superior TV coverage of Spain over France. In all, the English club and other suitors lost out on the man who decided to move to Spain.
Now that Dinho was in the bag, what next for Laporta and Barcelona? In his first season, Ronaldinho paired with a diminutive Argentine striker, Saviola and the two produced some exciting football but Laporta was not pleased. He wanted both excitement and results. So the next summer, Joan Laporta went shopping for a striker to pair with the talismanic Brazilian.
Fortunately, the man didn’t need to go abroad to shop for a striker because in most cases, these strikers often need time to settle into their new environment and this won’t be good for the Barcelona project. FC Barcelona and Joan Laporta needed results and needed it right away.
What Larpota did was to knock on the doors of Real Mallorca. The Spanish club has got an interesting African prospect in their ranks whom Laporta thought might be important to his project. Like Ronaldinho, recruiting the Cameroonian didn’t come easy for the Spanish club.
When Eto’o first got to Spain, he had trials and trained with Real Madrid who are sworn rivals with Barcelona. But during that period, Madrid had the likes of Raul and other great forwarders meaning, it would be very difficult for Eto’o to break into the first team. In a nutshell, the capital club deemed the Cameroonian striker not good enough for first-team football.
So Eto’o willfully plunged into the waiting arms of Mallorca. There, he showed Madrid what they would regret missing for the next decade.
So, when FC Barcelona came knocking and requested his services, Madrid quickly awakened to the imminent danger. They thought if Eto’o pairs the Brazilian wizard, the duo could spell doom for them for a long while, so to prevent the imminent danger, Madrid swung into action.
They were willing to do anything to scuffle the Cameroonian’s move to Barcelona but this time around, it wasn’t their calling to make. It was the Cameroonian’s and he chose to play for Barca. The move together with that of the Brazilian marked the beginning of an era in Barcelona.
Joan Laporta’s success in the club
Joan Laporta can pass as the father and architect of the modern Barcelona team. He successfully transformed the club from one which was on the brink of collapse to one of the best clubs in the world. Under his managerial master class, Barcelona enjoyed both domestic and European success.
At the end of his reign, the club had amassed more than 5 league titles, multiple league cups, Super Cup and the UEFA Champions League.
After his reign, the club began to experience a negative turn of events. Laporta was succeeded by Sandro Russell who was also a Catalan. The man came in with a nice plan but before long, the club began experiencing a downward curve.
Firstly, the club has never displayed a brand logo on the front Jersey. This has been this way for as long as I can remember. FC Barcelona has a tradition that places value ahead of profit but Russell came in and dropped that tradition.
His excuse was that football has gone beyond that and Barcelona has to make progress too. They opined that, for Barcelona to compete in modern football, they would need to make as much money as they could.
Sandro was only after money as most critics would say and I think they are not far off the truth. Russell’s approach plunged the club into several court cases which disrupted the stability of the club.
His reign was short as he resigned from the post to avoid being prosecuted by the Spanish Football Association for several irregularities.
Though short-lived, Sandro Russell laid a poor foundation for his successor whose father dampened the club and sent it into bankruptcy in 2020. They destroyed years of hard and sacrifice of Joan Laporta. The club is back to rebuilding.
Joan Laporta’s second coming as FC Barcelona president.
After Laporta’s time at the club, Barcelona failed to build on his success and has enjoyed sparingly in terms of a number of trophies won. Lionel Messi worked hard to elevate the club. But when Laporta came back for the term as club president. He thought about rebuilding the club.
He imagined Lionel Messi was now surplus to requirement and the Argentinian had no option but to move along.
His departure gave way for a new prospect to emerge. Lmine Yamal is now regarded as an heir to Messi. The Spanish prodigy has been impressive for the club since making his debut.
He played a vital part in Spain’s success at the 2024 European tournament. He is the youngest player to score at the EURO tournament.
All eyes are on the young star to see if his talent is enough to make him the club’s torchbearer like the stars mentioned before. Barcelona fans would be hoping Yamal does not suffer the fate of Ansu Fati who was recently dubbed the next big star for the club before suffering a career-impacting ACL injury.
