Joan Laporta signs a new director of corporate communication for Barça while announcing a staff reduction

2023-04-19 14:00:57

BarcelonaBarça’s director of communications, Àlex Santos, summoned all the workers in his department after a meeting of the club’s management committee. He gave them two pieces of news: that a new director of corporate communications, Ignasi Castelló, had been hired, and that there would be a 15% cut in staff over the coming months in a context in which the economic area aims to reduce ordinary expenses . The forty workers in the area left worried and disgusted. Worried about the cut and because it was not specified who it would affect. And upset because the replacement of Toni Ruiz, who was fired by Joan Laporta in October 2022 after 26 years at the club, comes from outside and no employee from the house has been promoted.

Castelló started working at the club this week after just over a decade as head of communications and public relations for the NBA in Spain, a role he has carried out from Madrid. But his curriculum, which begins with a degree in journalism at Ramon Llull University, is not the first to be studied from the offices of Arístides Maillol. According to ARA, there were names to whom the position was proposed and they declined the offer. Others, on the other hand, did not finish convincing President Laporta. This is the case of Artur Mas’s former head of press, Joan Maria Piqué, who, after this newspaper published that he was negotiating to join Barça’s communications department, was dismissed due to professional criteria. Finally, six months later, Castelló, passionate about the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, has accepted the position and obtained approval from the top management.

Barcelona native Castelló’s professional career turned towards corporate communication in January 2008, when he joined Tinkle, a communication agency with headquarters in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. This was the step before his signing by the NBA in July 2012. There he became the right-hand man of Chus Bueno, former player of Barça and Mollet basketball, among other teams, who was the vice-president of the NBA in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Precisely, Bueno also has a relationship with Barça at present, as he is the general manager of Legends in Spain and Portugal. One of the projects of the American company is the maximization of the income that the Camp Nou will have once it is remodeled. On the other hand, Legends is optimizing the management of the Santiago Bernabéu, which is finalizing the works.

Before that, however, Barça’s new director of corporate communications worked as a journalist in various media. First, he was a three-head intern: in the newspaper’s sports section Today i of The vanguardand in the society and local section of theAbc. Later, he was a multi-sport collaborator ofThe 9 Sports. In between, he had a stage in which he dedicated himself to the world of nautical, from editor to Yachting World Spain, a magazine specialized in sailing, and carrying the communication of the Barcelona Sailing Race. “He is a very good person, discreet, not very talkative, but efficient,” describes a source consulted in the world of basketball who knows Castelló very closely.

Turn in Barça’s communication

The departure of Toni Ruiz, one of the last casualties from the previous mandates that Laporta dismissed, left an important void in Barça’s communication department. “He was a club man. Toni always told you that when you made a decision, you should put the club before everything, before the president and yourself,” a person who worked hand in hand told ARA with him in the entity. “He learned this vision from Ricard Maxenchs, who was his teacher,” he adds. On the other hand, this source considers that Barça’s communication department has taken a turn since Laporta’s arrival at the club in March 2021. “Now the vision is more focused on acting as the president’s head of press”, he says .