It has been a week dominated by the exploits of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland in the Champions League and Barcelona presidential hopeful Toni Freixa believes the club can sign both of the players.
Freixa is one of three candidates on the final ballot for the club elections to be held on 7 March in an event dominating Barcelona news, but he lags behind frontrunners Joan Laporta and Victor Font and is now hopeful of making an impact.
Having claimed on Monday that his election would guarantee €250m of investment into the club, Freixa has also claimed that he would be able to bring both star strikers Mbappe and Haaland to the Camp Nou.
These claims appear to be hugely ambitious but also somewhat outlandish, due to the club’s precarious economic position and alarming levels of debt, of which a great deal must be paid off this year.
Read more: Barcelona on the verge of bankruptcy: €1,173m in debt, €730m in short-term
However, a bullish Freixa told Catalan radio station RAC1, in quotes carried by Marca: “Signing Haaland and Mbappe? It is absolutely possible and this is what Barça must do; signing players of that level.
“We do have a maxim that we will never talk about players until we present them. It is a bad strategy because you serve other clubs on a plate so that they can step on the negotiation.”
Freixa served on the board under former incumbents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu but left the board in 2015.
52-year-old Freixa, who is a lawyer by trade, finished bottom of the pile in the 2015 presidential elections at the club with just 3.7 percent of the vote – 1,750 votes – but is hopeful of building on that this time round.
Image via Marca
