Laporta Wants To Rebuild Barcelona's Squad Around Messi And Their Target $90M Star

FC Barcelona’s new president Joan Laporta wants to re-build the Catalans squad for the next season around skipper Lionel Messi and Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland.

Laporta, who shares a good relationship with Haaland’s super-agent Mino Raiola, is going to try to land the Norwegian playmaker at Camp Nou in the summer of 2021, Spanish publication Diario AS reported.

Failing to qualify for the Champions League’s quarter-finals has complicated Barcelona’s financial situation even more. Had they defeated Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Round of 16 and made it to the last-eight, $12 million were guaranteed to the Spanish club.

Meanwhile, the Diario AS report has also revealed that Laporta recently met with representatives of David Alaba, who is set to be without a contract at the end of the underway campaign. Alaba has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid but Laporta believes he holds the advantage over the Santiago Bernabeu side since he can offer Alaba a senior role in Barcelona’s back-line.

In the first stint as Barcelona’s president, Laporta had made a difference by signing Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o. The Camp Nou chief is aware that to once again make the Catalans a force in European soccer, he needs to make at least two to three crucial signings in the upcoming transfer market.

However, it won’t be an easy way out for Laporta and Barcelona to acquire Haaland, who is contracted with Dortmund until 2024 and has a release clause of around $90 million. In the ongoing season, Haaland has netted 31 goals and provided eight assists in 29 competitive matches. Overall, the 20-year-old forward has scored 47 goals and 11 assists in a total of 47 games, across all competitions, since his arrival to Dortmund from RB Salzburg in the 2020 January transfer window.

Top European clubs such as Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool FC are chasing Haaland and are not in a financial crisis like Barcelona. It was earlier reported that Premier League leaders City were going to snub their chase of PSG’s superstar Kylian Mbappe because of the Frenchman’s hefty fee and wages and instead shifted focus to Haaland, whose salary structure is expected to be much lesser than Mbappe’s.

Recently, Bayern Munich head coach Hansi Flick had suggested that the Bundesliga champions had not given up on the prospect of signing Haaland from their rivals Dortmund in the near future.