During the official presentation of Sergio Aguero, Joan Laporta’s first signing in his second presidential tenure at Barcelona, the president and his fellow board members spoke highly of their new addition from Manchester City, and also commented on coach Ronald Koeman.
With a question mark still hovering over the Dutch manager’s future and talks still ongoing, Laporta indicated that the negotiations are progressing steadily after evaluating his first season in charge and that there would be a decision on Koeman’s future soon.
This is what was said during Sergio Aguero’s announcement ceremony.
Laporta was the first to speak, welcoming the former Manchester City all-time topscorer: “Sergio, welcome to FC Barcelona. It makes us proud to have you here. You’ve always been a player that Barça have admired, because of your tremendous qualities. You have the style to fit in here. We’re excited.”
“He’s a desired player who wanted to come to Barça. We have signed a quality player. The fans will recognize how great of a player he is right from the beginning. “We wanted to finalize the signing before the Copa América because we didn’t want him to escape. He’s a very skilled striker, and there was a risk if we didn’t finalize his signing now,” he added.
Laporta then hinted that more would be signed soon, saying: “The signing of Agüero is because he’s an exceptional player. This is the first of one of the signings that you are going to learn about during this month of June.”
He then touched on Ronald Koeman: “We have told Koeman that we were going to sign Kun Agüero and that is because any coach in the world would want to have Kun in his ranks.”
“With Koeman we have started a period of reflection to evaluate what has been done well and what has not been done so well. That period began and we are in constant contact,” continued the president.
“The contacts with Koeman continue. We will see how it develops, I can say that we are doing well,” Laporta concluded.
Vice president Rafael Yuste then spoke saying: “Ronald Koeman is very, very happy about the signing of Kun Agüero.”
Mateu Alemany, the director of football, spoke next, lauding the cooperation between Barcelona and Manchester City: “Both parties had the will to understand each other from the first moment. We proposed a contract highly based on variables, a sign that Kun wanted to come.”