“Johan’s time as a player was the one that marked me the most”

Joan Laporta will preside this Sunday, against Mallorca, the last game at the Spotify Camp Nou before the renovations begin and the move to Montjuïc. The president of Barcelona attended Mundo Deportivo to remember some of his experiences at the barcelonista stadium from the same seat where he subscribed for fifty years, in the Lateral Segona Graderia. This is a preview of the interview. “These are memories of a lifetime”, excitedly explains Laporta, who assures that “Johan’s time as a player marked me the most”.

one of the memories What affected one so young the most? Laporta is the scandalous Guruceta: “I saw him in the Tribune, I remember throwing pads, the first ones, that were hard and flew hard. The children took them and we threw them into the field. It was filled with pads. The culés were very angry. We always attacked, Velázquez counterattacked, Rifé committed a foul ten meters from the area and the referee gave a penalty”.

The team of one who retains a better memory He is the player of Barça de Cruyff: “Johan’s time as a player was the one that marked me the most, because he made us winners. That team: Sadurní, Rifé, Torres, Costas, De la Cruz, Juan Carlos, Rexach, Asensi, Cruyff, Sotil and Marcial. We won the League 73-74, for me fiction; We won in Molinón five days from the end. The winning mentality started. memory Johan’s crosses and Sotil’s goals. Sotil amazed me, because it was a goal play. Cruyff’s center outside and Sotil’s goal. Then the natives happened and Neeskens arrived, who also caused a sensation and was much loved, with those white anklets and the penalties, that he shot a shot and guaranteed a goal”.

For players, commented that “the Barcelona fans We had the privilege: we saw Cruyff, Maradona, Schuster, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario, Stoichkov…”, but naturally he stuck to one: “The best is Messi, for me a mixture of Cruyff and Maradona. When he came out of the quarry, he was like the Messiah.”