Barcelona Boss Laporta chooses between Messi and Yamal for World Cup glory

As Barcelona president weighs up ultimate clash It all comes down to this. Sunday’s Fifa World Cup final in New York pits two global giants against each other – Argentina vs Spain – but it is a final of particularly monumental significance for FC Barcelona. It will pit the club’s academy legend and icon, Lionel Messi, against their emerging teenage sensation, Lamine Yamal.

And as it approaches, the great and good have been putting in their verdicts.

We asked Barca president Joan Laporta what he thought of the master vs apprentice clash, the future passing of the baton, and who was going to lift the trophy.

“The Past and the Future”

Laporta, in his conversation with RAC1, said he felt the occasion had underlined just how important La Masia, Barcelona’s legendary academy, remained in international football. The match, he suggested, was not really one of rivalry but one of heritage. “Messi has reached the final and I’m very happy.

He represents a source of pride for La Masia,” the club chief explained.

“Messi represents the past and the present, while Lamine represents the present and the future.” In classifying the iconic 10 as the ‘past and the present’, the club president clearly demarcated Yamal, in his present and ‘future’, status as the rightful, anointed successor to Messi at the Camp Nou.

Laporta Predicts the World Cup Winner

However, as is the nature of such contests, Laporta did not equivocate when picking the winner of the ultimate fixture.

Though his bond with Lionel Messi is irrefutable, the Barcelona president backed Luis de la Fuente’s European champions to get the job done in New York. “I believe the Spanish national team has the best collective structure at the moment to win the World Cup.

“La Roja have a more balanced and coherent team than the reigning champions,” stated Laporta, also citing La Masia’s imprint on the Spanish squad – and thus on Yamal – as another major advantage for La Roja.

Regardless of the result on Sunday, Barcelona come away as the biggest winners, reaffirming their position as the leading producer of world-changing talent on the planet.