History of Barcelona

Club Overview

FC Barcelona was founded on November 29th 1899 by Joan Gamper. Throughout the years the club has become the emblem for Catalan culture and pride as they proudly represent it on the soccer field. Barcelona FC has established itself as one of the elite clubs in the Spanish Premier League having legendry players such as Ladislao Kubala and Johan Cruyff play for them. They have won titles on both the national and international level such as the Champions League and La Liga. Currently under the presidency of Joan Laporta and coaching of Josep Guardiola.

Club History

FC Barcelona was founded on November 29, 1899 by Swiss protestant Joan Gamper. The club’s first players where Walter Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons. Almost immediately after it’s founding the club became one of the leading football teams in Spain, winning the Copa Macaya in 1902, and going to final of the Copa Del Rey. Barcelona became the leading football club of Catalonia, and on March 14th 1909 the team built a new stadium called Carrer Indústria.

In 1917 Gamper appointed Jack Greenwell to be the manager of the organization, and under him the team won eleven Campionat de Catalunya, six Copa del Reys and four Coupe de Pyrenées. He also recruited Paulino Alcántara, who went on to become the top scorer for Barcelona with 356 goals. This period of time is considered as one of Barcelona’s Golden Eras.

From 1925 till 1939, Spain was going through many political hardships, including a civil war, which overshadowed the sports world. Under Franco, the leader of the Spain, the Catalan language and symbols were banned, so the team had to change its name and remove the Catalan flag from its shield. This caused FC Barcelona to go through financial and social problems, having the number of members drop a significant amount. The civil unrest in the country was the reason for Josep Suñol i Garriga, Barcelona’s president at the time, getting killed by Francisco Franco’s soldiers in Guadalajara. Although they won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936 and 1938, they were not able to have any kind of success on the Spanish level.

However, during the mid 40s till the early sixties the team had became successful once again on the national level. In 1945, 48, and 49 FC Barcelona won titles in the Spanish Premier League, for the first time since 1929. They were under the coaching of Josep Samitier, and Hungarian Ladislao Kubala was their lead midfielder. The club’s success continued into the fifties as they won five different trophies. Because of their success, the club decided to build a new stadium in 1957 called Camp Nou, in order to house more fans.

During the sixties the club had financial difficulties, and was not able to purchase any top players. However that did not stop the FC Barcelona from continuing its streak of success as they won the Spanish Premier League in 1960 and the Copa del Rey in 1963, and 1968. Josep Fusté and Carles Rexach became the superstar players of that decade for Barcelona.

The 70s was a time marked by changes and additions to the club. One of the things that they changed was their name from CF Barcelona to its original name Futbol Club Barcelona. Johan Cruyff was added to the team during the 73-74 season, and instantly became a superstar, getting the European Footballer of the Year during his first season with the team.

During the 80s Nuñez successfully performed in his position, as the team continued its success. He helped recruit legendary soccer player Diego Armando Maradona to the team in 1982. Maradona helped Barcelona defeat arch rivals Real Madrid in the 1983 Copa Del Rey. Unfortunately, he only played with the team for a season. However, shortly after he left, Bernd Schuster replaced him as the superstar athlete on the team and under the management of Terry Venables, the team went to the European Cup finals against Seville. Nunez continued to add great talent to the squad, signing England’s top scorer Gary Lineker and goal keeper Andoni Zubizarreta to the team. Vernables was replaced at the beginning of the 1987/88 season by Luis Aragonés for the rest of the season.

In 1988 Johan Cruijff, became manager and assembled a team of star athletes. In the process he acquired such superstars as Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Michael Laudrup. He became the most successful manager wining a total of 8 trophies with the team. Cruijiff took the team to victories on both the national and international level including winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup, and La Liga. However, in his final two seasons, he got into a fall out with club president Nuñez, and did not win any titles, which resulted in him getting fired.

Cruijff was replaced by Bobby Robson, and then a year later Louis van Gaal was brought in from Ajax. Under van Gaal new superstar players such as Luís Figo, Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Luis Enrique Martínez and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. Despite their success on the domestic level, the team failed to win in UEFA Champions League. This led to the departure of Van Gaal and Nunez. Luis Figo joining Real Madrid, and was heavily criticised and harassed by FC Barcelona fans.

In 2003 Joan Laporta became the president and Frank Rijkaard became new manager of the organization. Under them stars like Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o, helped the club to reach success once again as they won La Liga in the 2004/05 season, then the following year La Liga and the Champions League in a 2-1 final victory against Arsenal. However, two years without a trophy led to Rijkaard being replaced by Josep Guardiola in 2008.

Club Rivalries

Real Madrid

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have been rivalries ever since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in 1939. The two teams represent different cities, political and cultural tensions in Spain. FC Barcelona represents the Catalonians, who wanted to separate from Spain, and Real Madrid represents Castile, a former kingdom that later merged to became a part of Spain. Both teams are dominant in the Spanish Premier League and compete every year is this rivalry that has became knows as the El Clásico.

RCD Espanyol

Espanyol and FC Barcelona are rivals due to the close proximity in which they play, in the city of Barcelona. Over the years the Esanyol has tried to unite with the rest of Spain, as oppose to FC Barcelona that continued to stick to its Catalonian roots. FC Barcelona has overshadowed Espanyol through the years, but despite that, the team still continues to rank from medium to high in La Liga. In 1995 Esanyol tried to make their name sound Catalonian, but this did not go well with FC Barcelona.

Stars of the Current Squad

Lionel Messi- Messi is Barcelona’s up and coming superstar second striker. Originally from Argentina, he has won personal awards on both the national and clubs such as the Copa America Best Young Player.

Thierry Henry- Henry started playing for Barcelona in 2007. He is one of the most experienced players on the team, as he has been playing professional soccer since 94. He has made a major impact on the team though his leadership.

Club Legends

Joseph Samatier—Samatier was the very first Barca superstar. He played with the team during the Golden Era in the 1920’s. Samatier played 21 times for Spain’s National Team and scored two goals.

Ladislao Kubala- Kubala is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. His greatest performance was against Sporting Gijion when he scored seven goals in one game. Kubala played on both the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian national team, making him the only player to ever do so.

Migueli- Migueli is known for his great commitment to the team. He has the most appearances out of any FC Barcelona player. One example of his loyalty to the team is when he played with a broken collar bone during the 1979 Winners Cup Final.

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Zamora Trophy Winners

• Juan Zambudio Velasco
• Antoni Ramallets
• Josep Manuel Pesudo
• Salvador Sadurní
• Miguel Reina
• Pedro María Artola
• Francisco Javier González Urruticoechea
• Andoni Zubizarreta
• Víctor Valdés

Pichichi Award Winners

• Mariano Martín
• César Rodríguez
• Cayetano Ré
• Carlos Rexach
• Hans Krankl
• Quini
• Ronaldo
• Romário
• Samuel Eto'o

Team Honours

Domestic Competitions

• La Liga Champions: 19

  1929, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2009

• Copa del Rey: 25

  1910, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1942, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1997, 1998, 2009

• Supercopa de España: 7

  1983, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2005, 2006

• Copa de la Liga: 2

  1982, 1986

• Championat de Catalunya

  1901-1902, 1904-05, 1908-09, 1909-10, 1910-11, 1912-13, 1915-16, 1918-19, 1919-20, 1920-21, 1921-22, 1923-24, 1924-25, 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1937-38

• Joan Gamper Trophy

  1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007

• Ciutat de Barcelona Trophy: 1

  1989

International Competitions

• UEFA Champions League

  1992, 2006, 2009

• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup:

  1979, 1982, 1989, 1997

• European Super Cup 2

  1992, 1997

• Copa Latina 2

  1949, 1952

• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

  1958, 1960, 1966

• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Trophy Play-Off

  1971

Club Management

Joan Laporta- Joan is the president of FC Barcelona. He was elected to the president position in 2003 after promising to bring David Beckham to the organization. Before getting involved with the team, Laporta owned his own law firm.

Josep Guardiola- After one successful season coaching Barça B, Guardiola was promoted to first team coach in the summer of 2008 taking over from Frank Rijkaard. As a player Guardiola was an integral part of Barça's team in the 1990s winning six La Liga titles and the European Cup in 1992

Uniforms

At home colors

Away uniform

Stadium

Camp Nou is located in Barcelona, Catalonia and has a capacity of 98,000, being the third largest stadium in the world. Due to a rise in the in the team’s popularity in the 1940’s and 1950’s FC Barcelona outgrew Camp de Les Corts, their old stadium, and moved in Camp Nou in 1957. FC Barcelona’s first game at the stadium was a 4-2 victory against Legia Warsaw with Eulogio Martínez scoring the first goal. In 1982 the stadium hosted the inarguable ceremony for the FIFA World Cup. In addition to football matches the stadium continues to play host to other events such as concerts.

Sponsors

• Nike- Official sponsors
• Coca-Cola - Official sponsors
• TV3- Official sponsors
• Audi- Official sponsors
• Telefónica - Official sponsors
• Estrella Damm - Official sponsors
• La Caixa - Official sponsors
• bwin - Official Betting Partner
• MediaPro - Official provider

Important Links

• http://www.fcbarcelona.com/ (official team website)
• http://www.barcelona-football-tickets.com/ (official ticket website)
• http://www.bcn.es/english/ihome.htm (city homepage)

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Barcelona#History
• http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/club/historia/introduccio/introduccio.html
• http://www.fcbarcelonausa.com/legends.htm
• http://www.fcbes.com/forum/