Born in Barcelona on 29 June 1962, Joan Laporta i Estruch, member number 13,352, is the first president in FC Barcelona history to be democratically elected to lead the club for two separate periods.
A graduate in Law from the University of Barcelona, he also has a master’s degree in Company Law and Taxation Expertise from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores Abat Oliba in Barcelona. He is a founding partner and owner of the Laporta & Arbós Advocats Associats legal firm; a member of the of the Barcelona Bar Association and, among other positions, is a patron and member of the executive commission of the Lluch Foundation and a patron of the Johan Cruyff Welfare Foundation.
After his first mandate ended in 2010, and after standing for election in 2015, Joan Laporta finally returned to office by winning the coronavirus-hit elections on 7 March 2021, with 30,184 votes, equating to 54.28% of the 55,611 members who voted.
He had a vast majority over his rival candidates: Víctor Font, who was second with 16,679 votes (29.99%), and Toni Freixa, third with 4,769 votes (8.58%).
Laporta, whose former tenure ran from 2003 to 2010, is now faced with the major challenge of bolstering the club’s finances, which have been hit hard by the pandemic, making the men’s football team more competitive; developing the Espai Barça real-estate project that will play such an essential part in the club’s future, and safeguarding La Masía as part of the club’s unique style of football and philosophy of developing its own youth talent.
