In 2020, when Joan Laporta announced his candidacy for the elections to become the president of FC Barcelona, he added a familiar name in Spanish football to his team. He was Mateu Alemany Font, one of the top names in the business side of the football.
Adding Alemany to the team was the winning move from Joan Laporta as he needed someone who could take Barca from the massive debts without breaking the club’s foundation.
When Laporta won the elections, he was appointed as the Direction of Football. The primary and challenging task for him was to reduce the team’s humongous salary cap and add players who could make the team competitive for the upcoming seasons.
Right now, when we are in the second half of the season, we witnessed some great transfers that Barcelona has done. It was not expected from the Catalan club. Everyone assumed that the club could not sign a single player when they were in a big crisis. But Alemany pulled the strings silently in the background.
But for making these transfers, Alemany started the process in the last summer transfer window when he tactically transferred Antonio Griezmann back to Atletico Madrid. It was just a start from him. By doing this transfer, a considerable wage was taken away.
One of the main headaches of the club in the last couple of years was the World Cup winner Samuel Umtiti, who was not in his top form after the injury. He was not a regular starter, but his salary was the second highest. Alemany managed this situation in a way that no one expected. They reached an agreement to extend his contract until 30 June 2026. The French defender is reducing a part of the salary that he was due to receive in the year and a half remaining on his contract, which means he will only receive less than half of what he used to get.
Another masterclass performance from the Director of Football was the signing of Ferran Torres from Manchester City. Before the winter transfer window opened, there were rumours that the Spanish club was looking to sign Raheem Sterling. But in reality, Alemany was making the moves to sign Torres, and when the window opened, he suddenly wrapped up the signing.
The signings of Aubameyang, Adama Traore and loaning out Coutinho was some of the class moves from Alemany.
Mateu Alemany was a lawyer just like Laporta. And their relationship goes back to the early 2000s when Alemany was the president of Real Mallorca. As president, Mateu Alemany achieved the team’s most outstanding achievement at a sporting level, the victory in the Copa del Rey in 2003. Also, they signed Samuel Eto’o during his tenure.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was very fond of Alemany and wanted him in his team when he was elected as the president of Los Blancos in 2000. But he rejected it.
Alemany also had a successful period with Valencia CF as their CEO from 2017-19.