Sandro Rosell: “We're here to talk if Valdés reconsiders"

President Sandro Rosell talked about the current events surrounding the Club during the presentation of the book ‘Being a Barça fan is ... The long history of great success.’ During the event Rosell talked about Víctor Valdés’ decision to not renew his contract - which expires next season - with the Club. “The doors are open to him. We’re here to talk if he reconsiders. We would like it if he stayed at Barça.” The president also talked about the way the fans treated Valdés on Sunday: “the Camp Nou passes judgment and gives its opinion and that’s exactly what happened. The Camp Nou wants Valdés.”

A home-grown model

These statements were made during a roundtable discussion at the presentation ceremony for the book ‘Being a Barça fan is ... The long history of great success.’ The event was attended by Carles Rexach and Ferran Adrià. The moderator of the discussion was Pilar Calvo. During the debate the president praised the Club’s current operations model, which was started 33 years ago with La Masia. “They believed in this model - a home grown model - could work.” He then said that when he and his Board of Directors came into power, that they held true to the philosophy of “if it works don’t touch it. If it doesn’t work, fix it." He added: "but we wanted to follow the model that started 33 years ago.” Carles Rexach noted: “the team’s most recent managers are people that were taught this philosophy.” Ferran Adrià admitted that what he likes the most about Barça are “the consequences. Barça’s power is incredible. It’s the best outward facing image of the country and that’s thanks to talent.”

“Tito has talent”

On the decision to name Tito Vilanova as Pep Guardiola’s successor, Rosell said, “we had an inkling [that he would do well] because we knew he played a big part in the decisions made when Guardiola was manager. He’s talented, he understands Barça, La Masia, what it means to be a Catalan ... those are difficult things to understand if you aren’t from here.” In addition, the president highlighted the values that the first team players represent and how it impacts children. “The team speaks Catalan in the dressing room and that says a lot. They are all friends. You see that in the dressing room and on the pitch.”

Rosell went on to explain that “the Club never received and offer for Messi and if one were to ever come, the player wouldn’t pay attention to it.” He added jokingly, “if the Club ever received an offer for Messi, I’m sure it wouldn’t even get past our mail filter.”

‘Being a Barça fan is ...’

‘Being a Barça fan is ... The long history of great success’  is a book written by Juanjo González and Eduard Gonzalo and it highlights the testimonies of public and Club figures like Tito Vilanova, Leo Messi, Sandro Rosell, Pep Guardiola and Josep Carreras, among others.

Blaugrana gathering

The directors Jordi Mestre, Pilar Guinovart, Jordi Moix, Ramon Pont, Joan Bladé and Javier Bordas attended the ceremony, as did Antoni Rossich, Pau Vilanova, Josep Maria Fusté, Guillermo Amor, Eusebio Sacristán, Julio Alberto, the Barça presidents Josep Lluís Núñez and Enric Reyna.