The rich History Of FC Barcelona dated back to when the club was founded in he year 1899. The Spanish club was well-known for their amiable and very entertaining form of football, which consistently seemed to deliver results, until they revolutionized the game of football by creating the tiki-taka style of play.
FC Barcelona may add Champions Leagues and Cup Winners’ Cups to their numerous La Liga championships and Copa del Rey trophies that they have won over the course of their lengthy and incredibly successful history.
FC Barcelona can afford to be owned and funded only by their own supporters because they are among the wealthiest and most well-liked clubs in the world. As its motto, “More than a club” (Més que un club), attests, Barcelona has been a key emblem of Catalonia and its culture since its founding.
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History of FC Barcelona;
Joan Gamper, a football pioneer, decided in 1899 to start a football club. The desire came true when eleven other enthusiasts responded to his newspaper advertisement, and Barcelona was founded.
The new club began its voyage successfully; after losing to Bizcaya in the final of the inaugural Copa del Rey in 1902, Barcelona rebounded back in style, winning the competition eight times between then and 1928.
The first golden era of FC Barcelona
The 1920s are considered the club’s first golden era. Paulino Alcántara was the team’s first significant goal scorer as they dominated both the Copa del Rey and the Campionat de Catalunya.
After winning the first La Liga title in 1929, Barca went through a period of decline brought on by the ongoing political unrest in the nation, which finally got so bad that it led to the start of the Spanish Civil War and the establishment of Franco’s administration.
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He was a left-wing politician and this would finally lead to his death, he was executed by the Francoist regime in 1938.
Gamper’s stay in Barcelona came to an abrupt stop when he was expelled from Spain for political reasons. A few years later, he took his own life. The new director of FC Barcelona was Josep Sunyol.
While life under Franco was proving arduous from a political point of view (the club was in fact forced to change its name to the less Catalanian and Anglian sounding Barcelona Club de Futbol and the Catalan colors were removed from the crest), the next two decades were reasonably successful for the club.
In the period from 1942 to 1957, Barcelona claimed five La Liga titles and five Copa del Rey trophies.
Following their move to the newly built Camp Nou, the club’s officials decided to turn a new leaf and appoint Helenio Herrera as the new manager.
Under Herrera’s guidance – and with a Ballon d’Or winner Luis Suárez (not the Uruguayan footballer) as the team’s leader on the field – Barcelona won two consecutive La Ligas and one Copa del Rey in the next three years.
FC Barcelona’s new era of domination
Losing Luís Figo – one of the club’s heroes up until that point – to Real Madrid’s “Los Galacticos” in 2000 proved to be a tough blow for Barça and their ambitions.
The early 00s saw many changes in the club’s personnel, but things didn’t turn for the better until the arrival of another Dutchman in 2005 – Frank Rijkaard.
Much like his compatriots Cruyff and Van Gaal before him, Rijkaard went on to form a star-studded team by combining expensive international signings such as Ronaldinho with a base of upcoming Spanish players like Carles Puyol, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta.
With Rijkaard in charge, Barcelona won two La Ligas and one Champions League.
In 2008, Pep Guardiola took over as the club’s manager, having previously coached Barcelona’s B Team. Being a product of La Masia himself, Guardiola fully understood the importance of the Academy and the possibilities it holds.
His coaching methods focused primarily on the now-famous tiki-taka, a style of play combined Cruyff’s penchant for quick passing and constant movement with maintaining possession at all costs. In addition to that, this tactic favored zonal marking over the traditional, formation-based system.
Soon enough, tiki-taka turned into a conceptual revolution in its own right, leaving Barcelona in a great position to profit off it.
During his four years at the helm, Guardiola turned Barcelona into the most dominant club in the world. Led by La Masia’s newest wunderkind, Lionel Messi, Barcelona went on to decimate any opposition in their path, winning three La Ligas, two Copa del Reys and two Champions Leagues from 2008 to 2012.
Even after Guardiola’s departure, Barcelona would stick to the successful formula; in the years that followed, they claimed an additional two La Ligas, one Copa del Rey and the 2015 Champions League.
Sponsor controversy
Barcelona’s blaugrana shirt was under a long time free from any sponsor logotypes (the exception was UNICEF, which wasn’t a typical sponsor deal). But in 2010 a deal with the Qatar Foundation that would generate €30 million (for a contract between 2011 and 2015) was apparently too much to say no to.
By many reasons this was controversially decisions. In addition to the fact that the T-shirt no longer was “clean” (the UNICEF logotype had been there for some years, but it was a completely different thing), it was a deal with a company from a country with a dictator regime.
Even though the members (FC Barcelona is owned by its own members) said yes, many Barça fans have been doubtful to the deal.
FC Barcelona timeline
1899 The club is established.
1900 First season in the Campionat de Catalunya (Catalan football championship).
1902 Winning the first club title (Copa Macaya).
1902 Reaching the final in the first Copa del Rey.
1905 Winning the Campionat de Catalunya for the first time.
1910 Winning their first Copa del Rey trophy.
1923 The club move to the Les Corts stadium.
1929 Winning the Primera División in its first season.
1957 Camp Nou opens with a capacity of 93 000 spectators.
1973 Johan Cruyff joins the club (will later be appointed as manager).
1979 La Masia, the club’s youth academy, is founded.
1979 First European Cup Winners’ Cup title.
1982 Diego Maradona is transferred from Boca Juniors.
1992 First European Cup title.
1993 First Champions League participation.
2004 Lionel Messi makes his debut in the first team.
2006 First Champions League title.
2013 Become the second club to collect 100 points during a season in Primera División.
2021 Lionel Messi is sold due to financial problems.
