Pictures: Joan Laporta Elected FC Barcelona President, Addresses Lionel Messi's Future

A new FC Barcelona president was elected late on Sunday, and he immediately addressed Lionel Messi's future after pictures of the six-time Ballon d'Or winner voting emerged earlier in the day. Here are some of the best images!

Click through the gallery above to see Joan Laporta celebrating his victory!

Joan Laporta has returned to the Barcelona hot seat after winning 54.28% of the total vote in what was a landslide win for the 58-year-old, with Victor Font coming in second with 29.99% and Toni Freixa claiming just 8.58%.

The Spaniard was president of the Catalan club between 2003 and 2010, and is famously remembered as the man who appointed a young Pep Guardiola as manager in 2008, the start of arguably the club's most memorable period in history.

Laporta has been welcomed back to succeed former chief Josep Maria Bartomeu, who stepped down from his role in October last year after a combination of controversies, including a high-profile fallout with club captain Lionel Messi.

As expected, Laporta, after signing Barcelona's anthem with his campaign team, addressed Messi's future at the club amid speculation linking the Argentine with a move away, saying he hopes that the 33-year-old voting is a promising sign of things to come.

"Twenty years ago, a little boy called Leo Messi made his debut with Barca's youth team," he said, according to club's official Twitter account.

"Seeing the best player in the world come out to vote today is a clear sign of what we keep saying. Leo loves Barca.

"The best player in the world loves Barca and I hope that is a sign that he will stay at Barcelona, which is what we all want."

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Messi has just a few months remaining on his current contract in Spain, although there does appear to be some optimism in Barcelona that he could commit to the club once again following Laporta's return.

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