Barcelona Presidential Election: Joan Laporta wins by landslide over Victor Font and Toni Freixa

Former Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, has won the club’s presidential election conducted on Sunday by a landslide.

The 58-year-old gathered more than 54 percent of the vote to secure victory over Victor Font (29.99 percent) and Toni Freixa (8.58 percent) and would go on to gain his second term at the helm.

Laporta was previously president during one of the club’s most successful periods; earning 12 trophies between 2003 and 2010 including a famous treble under Pep Guardiola and with Lionel Messi as the talisman.

He would also be looking at keeping the Argentina star, with Messi’s contract expiring in the summer and the player unsure whether he wants to finish his career at his boyhood club.

Messi who has been targeted by Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain will take Laporta’s plans into consideration before he ventures into making a decision on his future this summer, but the team are behind Atletico Madrid in the title race and look sure to be knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, down 4-1 from their last-16 first leg.

Messi was seen casting his vote at the Nou Camp earlier on Sunday alongside first-team players like Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto, and Jordi Alba.

Also, former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who was was among four ex-Barcelona officials arrested in a corruption probe by Catalan police, also cast his at the stadium – one of four locations.

Barca followed strict coronavirus measures, having postponed the vote from January 24 and by the opening of voting at 9 am on Sunday, more than 20,000 of the 110,290 members had cast theirs by postal ballot.

As well as the Nou Camp, there were voting stations set up in Girona, Lleida, Tarragona, Tortosa, and Andorra.