Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was among the guests at Joan Laporta's inauguration party at Camp Nou on Wednesday, with the new club president pledging to do everything in his power to convince the club's all-time top scorer to stay at Camp Nou.
Laporta's pitch to Messi came two days after the Argentine equalled Xavi's record of 767 games for Barcelona, marking the occasion by scoring twice in a 4-1 rout of Huesca.
"I'll do everything I can to make Leo stay because he's the best player in history," Laporta said in his speech at the Camp Nou as Messi and fellow captains Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto and Sergio Busquets watched on.
"You know I love you, you know Barca loves you and if this stadium were full when you played, you wouldn't want to leave. Whatever you decide is fine in the end, but we'll try."
The Argentine has less than four months left on his contract with Barca, and has not yet indicated if he will continue his two-decade association at Camp Nou.
Laporta presided over one of Barca's most illustrious periods between 2003 and 2010, which included Messi's rise from the youth ranks to become their best player ever.
The Spanish politician returns for a second stint as Barca president after winning the March 7 election with an overwhelming majority of members' votes.
He then faced an unexpected scramble to secure a guarantee of €125 million ($149.70 million) within 10 days of winning the election to secure his position and avoid a second election, eventually getting over the line thanks to the backing of Catalan businessman Jose Elias, CEO of renewable energy firm Audax.
"We've had some night, and it wasn't exactly a party," he said, in reference to securing the guarantee before Wednesday's deadline.
Laporta inherits a deep financial crisis exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and said getting the accounts in order would be his priority, also predicting the club would soon return to earning the same amount of revenue as before the pandemic hit last year.
"It's our priority to make the club sustainable economically and we have an immediate plan to do that. But we're not scared by the situation and if we have to make big decisions in Barca's interest then we will," he added.
Barca trail La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid by four points with 11 games to go and face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final next month.
