Joan Laporta on the situations of certain FC Barcelona players
At his Thursday press conference, Joan Laporta, the FC Barcelona president, had plenty to say on the current circumstances of different members of the senior squad:
Sergio Busquets
“He is indefatigable. We have young players but without players like Busi it would be hard to get them working so well. He is a very important player for us.”
“We sat down before Christmas. he has received offers from MLS and he's always said he'd like to give America a go. He could have departed for MLS this winter but fortunately he decided to see out the season here.”
“If he has the strength and feels important, which he is, we'll sit down and talk. We haven't sat down yet because neither party feels the moment has come.”
Ansu Fati
“Ansu's agent has been in Barcelona the last few days, but we have hopes pinned on that player. We have not seen any signs that he would like to go anywhere. He is very settled and loved at this club.”
“We are not planning any kind of sale right now. You can never say what might happen in the future. It all depends on how useful he is to the team and to the coach. Xavi is giving him chances and the player has raised a lot of expectations that could well happen.”
“His agent has told us that other clubs are interested. We have not heard anything about him wanting to leave, just that he's determined to be a success here.”
Alejandro Balde
“We are working on renewing his contract. We can't say everything is decided, but we're working on it and I'd say it's practically settled. Balde is very interested in staying and we want him to. We are hoping to register him but there's the fair play matter."
Ousmane Dembélé
“He is happy and so are we. I am very fond of him and he's very important for the team. We love him as a player. The coaches, me, the board.... we all love Dembélé. His contract is until 2024, so he has a contract and we want him to stay.”
Other players
Laporta was also asked about recent comments made by Leo Messi's brother Matías, saying “Messi is Barça heritage. We are very proud to have had such a good player. But I can't speak about Messi because he belongs to PSG and I won't discuss players that are at a different club, out of respect. I am not bothered by what his brother said. What's more, he's apologised. I fully understand because it was a very sad ending.”
The president also commented that João Mendes, son of Ronaldinho, will be joining the club after training for a few days. “The other day I spoke to Roberto [Roberto de Assis, Ronaldinho's brother and agent] and some things need to be settled in Brazil. We'll give him a contract. The kid has a future and we'd be happy for him to continue his career here. We're happy to have such a relationship with Ronaldinho.”
Finally, Mateu Alemany spoke about Julián Araujo, who is at Los Angeles Galaxy, saying “we've been monotoring him for some time, but due to certain circumstances, an error in the FIFA system, we couldn't close the deal. The famous 18 seconds. We wanted him for the second team. We want him and we'll look for a solution, via the Court of Arbitration for Sport or he can play in another team for five months and then join us.”