Joan Laporta Sets Ambitious Goals for Barcelona's Season
Joan Laporta stood where politics, history and football often blur in Catalonia.
In front of the Rafael Casanova monument, at the traditional wreath-laying ceremony for Catalonia's National Day, the Barcelona president spoke less like a cautious administrator and more like a man who believes his club is ready to chase everything again.
Not something. Everything.
“We are candidates to win the titles”
Laporta did not bother lowering expectations. He raised them.
“We are candidates to win the titles,” he declared, outlining a target list that reads like a fantasy for most clubs but a demand at Barça: La Liga, Copa del Rey, the Supercopa, and the Champions League.
The dream is the quadruple. The reference point is 2015, when Luis Enrique’s side collected trophies with a ruthless regularity: league, cup, Champions League, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup. Barcelona have not touched that level of dominance since.
Laporta believes the current project, shaped under Hansi Flick, has the tools to try.
“We have a very competitive and balanced squad, and Deco has done a great job,” he said, highlighting the depth that allows the club to “form two competitive teams.” In his view, that leaves no excuse and “no room for relaxation.”
The message is clear: no hiding place, no safety net. Full focus or fall behind.
Optimism with a warning
For all the bullish talk, Laporta tried to keep a lid on the euphoria around Barça’s strong start to the season. He knows how quickly early-season optimism can evaporate.
“We must keep our feet on the ground, as the season has only just begun,” he cautioned.
Yet every sentence he added betrayed how much he likes what he sees.
“We hope to continue at this level, with great commitment. And to win this year, you have to run. The commitment of the team and the club is a great sign.”
Run. Press. Suffer together. Laporta kept returning to that idea: work-rate as non-negotiable, talent as the platform, intensity as the difference-maker.
That is where one name, still barely at the start of his career, came sharply into focus.
Lamine Yamal as the standard
Laporta singled out Lamine Yamal, not for a goal or a dribble, but for his words.
The young forward has spoken recently about the importance of running and pressing, about the collective effort needed without the ball. For a player of his age, that kind of discourse stands out in a dressing room full of stars.
“What Lamine says at the age of 19 deserves a lot of appreciation, as his maturity is astonishing,” Laporta said. “He is a clear example of the need for the team to keep its focus and not feel relaxed, in order to fight for everything.”
In a squad packed with technical quality, Laporta is holding up Yamal’s mentality as the model. Not the oldest, not the most decorated, but the one whose attitude fits the new standard he wants.
Europe at the heart of the project
Domestically, Barcelona want it all. In Europe, they need it.
Laporta did not disguise where his obsession lies. “We have a special enthusiasm to win the Champions League,” he admitted, making it plain that the competition sits at the top of the club’s priorities.
It has been a long, bruising wait since Berlin 2015. Years of early exits, collapses and painful nights have turned the Champions League from a familiar stage into a haunting reminder of what Barça used to be.
Now, under Flick and with a squad Laporta calls “balanced” and “very competitive,” the club hierarchy senses an opening to rejoin the elite. The strong start to the season has only sharpened that belief inside the Camp Nou offices.
The optimism, Laporta insists, is not blind. It is built on the sense that Barcelona finally have depth, intensity and internal competition again. That they can rotate without losing their edge. That they can sustain a title challenge on multiple fronts, not just in a single competition.
The president is not promising another 2015. He cannot. Football has changed, rivals have grown stronger, and the margin for error is thinner than ever.
But by speaking openly of a quadruple, by demanding constant running and concentration, by holding up a 19-year-old as the standard for commitment, Laporta has done something else: he has reset the bar.
At Barcelona, the season will not be judged on progress or good intentions. It will be judged on whether this renewed ambition, and this loudly declared belief, ends with trophies back in the cabinet and that long-absent European crown finally reclaimed.
