Joan Laporta stopped Barcelona signing Chelsea icon – “My unfulfilled wish”

Barcelona have had a number of top goalkeepers over the years, but they could have had another during the 2000s/2010s. Victor Valdes was their number one towards the end of the first decade, but had things gone differently, it could have been Petr Cech lining up for the Catalans.

As revealed by Cech’s former agent Pavel Zika (via Sport), an agreement had been reached with Barcelona presidential candidate Lluís Bassat for the Czech goalkeeper to join in 2003. However, that deal fell through when Joan Laporta won the election that year.

“I met with the leading candidate for the presidency of the club several times and in the third meeting we were finalising the details. And then, a discreet Barcelona lawyer, Mr. Laporta, who was an outsider, second or third in the polls, pulled an ace out of his sleeve a few days before the elections: ‘I will bring David Beckham’. That changed everything and the people gave their vote to Mr. Laporta.”

Rather than David Beckham, who went to Real Madrid, Barcelona went on to sign Ronaldinho under the orders of Laporta, which is why Zika has no ill-feelings about the matter.

“During his time at Barça, he became the best player in the world, so in the end it went well, but in that way Cech was left without his signing for Barça. To this day, that is my unfulfilled wish. We shed a tear for it together with Petr and his wife Martina, but we kept going. The end of that beautiful story was that, in January 2004, half a year before the European Championship, we closed the transfer of Cech to Chelsea.”

Barcelona have a top goalkeeper on their books now

Barcelona may have missed out on Cech, but 22 years on, they did sign a goalkeeper that has the potential to be one of the world’s best. Joan Garcia, who recently returned from injury, has made a fine start to his Spotify Camp Nou career, having joined in the summer from city rivals Espanyol.

The post Joan Laporta stopped Barcelona signing Chelsea icon – “My unfulfilled wish” appeared first on Football España.