Friday, November 29 was the 125-year anniversary of the formation of FC Barcelona.
To mark the occasion, The Athletic is running a series of pieces, celebrating the people and the moments who have helped make the club what they are today.
Read more:
- Joan Gamper, the man who built the club (thanks to a magazine advert)
- Seven per cent of goals scored by Messi, three papal conclaves and 132 trophies
- When Barcelona’s star striker was kidnapped for 23 days
- Lionel Messi speaks about his ‘special club’ but is still yet to return
A — Paulino Alcantara
Not Thiago, not Rafinha — the best player named Alcantara to ever grace Barcelona was Paulino.
The Philippines-born striker was the main face of the ‘Golden Barcelona’ side of the 1920s, when the Catalan club won five out of 10 national championships and eight Catalan cups.
Alcantara is Barca’s second-highest goalscorer — with 369, behind only Lionel Messi’s 672 — and was called “El Romperedes” (the net-breaker) for his powerful shot. He also worked as a doctor after graduating in his home country and did so while starring for Barca. He died in 1964 and was named the best Asian footballer of all time by FIFA in 2007.
B — Basel
The Swiss city will always be remembered by Barcelona fans for being where they won their first major European trophy of the modern era — the new-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in May 1979.
Barca beat Fortuna Dusseldorf of Germany 4-3, after extra time, in front of more than 30,000 of their travelling fans, the first mass following away from home. It was four years after the end of General Franco’s dictatorship in Spain and supporters wanted to freely express their love for the club for the first time in years.
C — Johan Cruyff
A god in Barcelona and the most transformative figure in the club’s history.
Cruyff arrived as a player in 1973 and immediately helped Barca win the league again after a 13-year drought, orchestrating a historic 5-0 beating of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu along the way, and led them to the Copa del Rey in 1978.
The Dutchman’s personality, daring character and unparalleled vision changed how football was perceived at Barcelona — then he did it all over again as a manager. From the dugout, he helped win four more league titles and their first European Cup title, while laying the foundations for the style of play still taught throughout the club.
D — Dream Team
Inspired by the United States’ star-studded basketball team who won gold at the 1992 Olympics in the Catalan city, this is how the Barcelona side managed by Cruyff from 1988-96 also became known.
Cruyff assembled a core of local players, trusting in graduates of their La Masia academy (such as Pep Guardiola, Guillermo Amor, Andoni Zubizarreta and Txiki Begiristain) and combining them with Basques and world-class talents from abroad (Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Romario). It was the perfect mix.
E — Entorno
Translated as ‘environment’, the word entorno is fundamental to understanding Barca’s identity and unique dynamics.
Cruyff used it for the first time in April 1992, after his team lost a European Cup game 1-0 against Sparta Prague, when referring to the off-field pressures at Barca — specifically his battle over decision-making with then-president Josep Lluis Nunez (of whom more later) and vice-president Anton Parera. Being president of Barca is an extremely sought-after role and one with plenty of power and public recognition attached to it — there is a case to be made it is even more important than being president of Catalonia.
The club’s democratic nature means you have to win elections to become president, and to do that you have to gain votes from the socios, as members are known, who own the club. To do that, you need to win the narrative battle in the media. So the entorno can be described as being formed by the club’s board, former presidents, the manager and even the players’ agents and relatives. Its influence is still felt today.
F — Barca Femeni
Barcelona’s women’s side are enjoying a glorious generation led by two-time Ballon d’Or winners Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati — players who exemplify the club’s fine work and trust in this area.
It arrived late, with Barca Femeni only fully established in 2002, despite their first game taking place in 1970. It then took them until 2015 to become fully professional, but that ignited their current era of European dominance. Barca have won five Spanish league titles in a row and three out of the past four Women’s Champions Leagues (finishing as runners-up in the other year), with Putellas and Bonmati winning the past four Ballons d’Or between them.
G — Hans Gamper
The Swiss man who founded Barcelona 125 years ago today, after placing a magazine advert “wishing to organise some games” in the city. You can read all about him in Dermot Corrigan’s piece.
H — Hesperia rebellion
A trademark episode of Barcelona madness.
The 1987-88 season was a difficult one for the club. After defeat in the 1986 European Cup final by Steaua Bucharest and finishing second to Real Madrid in the league for two consecutive seasons. Terry Venables had been sacked as coach by president Nunez and Luis Aragones had arrived in his place, but Barca were still going nowhere.
A team with talents such as Bernd Schuster and Gary Lineker underachieved in the league and Europe but did manage to win the Copa del Rey in March 1988. That empowered 22 first-team players to set up a press conference at the city’s Hesperia hotel, announcing a rebellion against Nunez. They felt the president had been dishonest when negotiating their contracts, with Nunez showing no willingness to speak and solve the situation.
Led by their captain, Jose Ramon Alexanko, the players publicly asked Nunez to resign. He decided to stay firm, sack Aragones — who had backed the players — fire the majority of the squad and bring in a new manager who was already popular among the fans: Cruyff.
Fourteen players left Barca the following season, with 12 more being signed. But that mutiny led to one of the best periods in the club’s history with Cruyff’s Dream Team (see above).
I — Industria stadium
Barca’s first home stadium, where they played from 1909 to 1922. Located in the heart of the city, it could hold up to 6,000 fans. But the team became so successful they outgrew the ground’s capacity, and moved to the 20,000-capacity Les Corts stadium in 1922.
The Industria also gave Barca fans their ‘culers’ nickname.
The word comes from ‘cul’, which means bottom in Catalan. A section of fans who went to the Industria stadium had to perch themselves on the rear edge of the stands, meaning any person walking by would see their backsides along that wall — hence culers.
J — Joan Laporta
With 10 years and counting in charge of the club across two spells, Laporta is one of the most successful Barcelona presidents in history.
Originally a lawyer, he rose to prominence as part of a socio-formed group known as Elefant Blau (Blue Elephant), created in 1997 to oppose Nunez’s presidency. Cruyff supported that platform, which partly helped Laporta win his first presidency in 2003.
Laporta is remembered as the president who assembled the Ronaldinho generation in the 2000s and who oversaw Messi’s breakthrough from a La Masia academy (see below) talent to one of the greatest players in history (even if he was also president when the Argentinian left, on a free transfer, in summer 2021). He trusted figures such as Frank Rijkaard, Begiristain and Guardiola to build winning dynasties with Barca’s distinctive attacking football DNA and academy graduates.
Off the pitch, his dominant leadership has caused rifts with board members and created internal divisions — as inevitably tends to happen at this club.
K — Laszlo Kubala
Arguably Barcelona’s most important player not named Lionel Messi.
Kubala joined in 1950, a year after escaping his home country of Hungary following the Soviet Union’s invasion. He became the star of a team who won every trophy possible in 1951-52 and went on to spend 10 seasons with Barca, scoring 288 goals in 361 appearances.
Kubala was an all-action midfielder known for his robust physique, after training as a boxer in Hungary, but also his technical ability. His impact caused the club to grow even more and even led to the construction of the Camp Nou — he started in the first game played at that stadium.
Today, his legacy is honoured with a statue of him outside Barca’s iconic home ground, which is currently closed for extensive (expensive) refurbishments.
L — La Masia
Masia is a Catalan word that describes a countryside cottage or farmhouse. In FC Barcelona’s world, La Masia was an old cottage built in the year 1702, next to the area where the Camp Nou now stands.
During the stadium’s construction in the 1950s, La Masia was used as a place for workers on the project to store their tools and organise themselves. Camp Nou was inaugurated in 1957 and the building next door started being used as Barca’s headquarters, but the club kept growing.
In 1979, president Nunez found another use for it: as a dormitory for young players in Barcelona’s academy who would otherwise struggle to play for the club without having a place locally to live. La Masia became the site where multiple generations of Barca stars were developed and is now a brand, used to describe the club’s talent factory.
In 2011, Barca moved accommodations for their youth players to bigger and modern facilities in their Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training centre, but these newer buildings are still collectively called ‘La Masia’. The old farmhouse itself remains outside the Camp Nou, as a symbol of the club.
M — Lionel Messi
What more is there left to say about Lionel Andres Messi?
The Argentinian is Barcelona’s record goalscorer with 709 in 837 appearances, and won 35 major titles and lifted a record seven Ballons d’Or during his time at the club. Cruyff transformed Barca and Guardiola’s coaching might be unparalleled, but nobody has come close to matching Messi’s achievements for them on the pitch — and it is probable nobody ever will.
His tearful exit three years ago was a sour ending to his Barca career. But he has said he plans to return and live in Catalonia after he retires as a player, and it will surely not be long before his name is linked to Barca again. At least for a proper final tribute the fans still want to give him, seeing as he left the club while crowd restrictions related to the pandemic were still in place.
N — Josep Lluis Nunez
Barcelona’s longest-serving president, with 22 years in charge from 1978 to 2000, and a figure who explains the club’s modern history.
Born in the Basque Country of northern Spain, he moved to Barcelona with his family when he was seven, became a highly successful local businessman and founded and built up one of Catalonia’s biggest building companies during the 1970s. Nunez was a football outsider, but Barca gave him a way to the very top of Catalan society. He became one of the most influential figures across the city and country.
His reign was controversial, bringing in big names such as Diego Maradona, Romario and Ronaldo by paying them generous sums but gaining a reputation for prioritising business over football success. He and Cruyff also had plenty of differences when the Dutchman was the manager, leading to ‘Nunism’ and ‘Cruyffism’ as two opposing parts of Barca’s ideology that remain today.
In 2011, when he had left the club and following a long investigation, Nunez was sentenced to six years in prison for bribing tax inspectors in exchange for them favouring his building company. After a series of appeals and fines, he went to jail in 2014, with a reduced sentence of two years and two months. Two years after being released, he died in Barcelona at age 87.
O — Olympians
Barca is known for its ‘Mes que un club’ — more than a club — motto, and one thing that illustrates that is its multi-disciplinary approach. Local fans do not just support the football team but also the club’s professional basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey sides.
It also has an athletics division and has provided 230 athletes in Summer Olympics history. There were 23 athletes from Barca at the Games this year in Paris, only surpassed by the 34 they sent to the pandemic-delayed 2021 edition in Tokyo.
P — Pep Guardiola
The manager and creator of Barcelona’s finest ever team, but above all a person who’s experienced all aspects of the club.
Guardiola was a La Masia talent who caught the eye of Cruyff and won the 1992 European Cup (which became the Champions League) with the first team. He spent 11 seasons at Barcelona as a club player, but he had an even deeper impact as a manager, bringing Cruyff’s footballing idea to reality.
His team won two Champions Leagues, three league titles, two Copas del Rey, three Spanish Super Cups, two European Super Cups and two Club World Cups in four years.
Q — Quini
One of the most prolific Spanish strikers in the 1970s and 1980s, his spell at the club will be remembered because he was… kidnapped.
R — Ronaldinho
It was only three years at his very best, but what a three years it was. Ronaldinho revitalised Barcelona after he joined the club in 2003, even though he was not supposed to be there!
Laporta had just won his first Barcelona election and, in his mind, David Beckham was the signature signing he was planning. However, Real Madrid managed to lure the Englishman and Laporta had no other choice than switching to the next option: a promising 23-year-old Brazilian attacker from Paris Saint-Germain.
Ronaldinho had an instant impact under Frank Rijkaard, turned Barcelona into a happy place and topped his spell at the club by winning the 2006 Champions League.
S — Josep Sunol
The martyr president. Josep Sunol became president of Barcelona in 1935, but has been linked with the club’s board since 1928.
Born and raised in Barcelona, Sunol came from a Catalan bourgeois background and worked throughout his life for the defence of Catalan culture. He was a lawyer, worked as a journalist and got involved in politics, opposing Francisco Franco’s insurrection.
While Barca president, Sunol paid a visit to the Spanish Republican troops who were fighting in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. During that trip, their car entered an area that was controlled by Franco’s troops. Sunol was identified, detained and shot to death alongside his colleagues.
On 6 August 1936, 88 years ago today, Josep Sunyol i Garriga, unanimously appointed president of FC Barcelona a year earlier, was shot by fascist troops in the Sierra de Guadarrama. His tragic death was the prelude to one of most troubled eras in club history… pic.twitter.com/d3ipaB8Cex
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 6, 2024
T — Tenerife
Tenerife will always be a friendly club to Barcelona thanks to two of the most dramatic Spanish league finales.
In 1992 and 1993, the fixture list meant that Real Madrid visited Tenerife for the last match of the season. In both campaigns, Cruyff’s Barcelona and their biggest rivals had a head-to-head fight for the title that lasted until the very last minute. The Catalans needed Madrid to lose in Tenerife and to win their game to get the silverware. And on both occasions, it happened.
U — United States tour
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona were offered $15,000 in cash by a Catalan businessman based in Mexico to take part in a tour to play some friendly games in America.
Barca were going through a tough financial crisis, fuelled by the assassination of former president Sunol and a decrease in socios following the war. Club historians now admit there was a serious risk the club could have disappeared owing to their huge debts.
A tour that was supposed to last a matter of days ended up with Barcelona extending their stay and travelling to the United States to play more games over a three-month period, effectively safeguarding the future of the club.
V — Tito Vilanova
Francesc ‘Tito’ Vilanova succeeded Guardiola in taking charge of Barcelona and helped extend Barcelona’s glory while battling against Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid.
His team won the 100-points league ahead of Madrid — and he became the only Barca manager who’s ever done that. He also selected a starting XI filled only with La Masia players in a league game in November 2012. A year later, he had to step out from the role after being diagnosed with cancer.
He passed away in 2014. Messi has said that, six days before Vilanova’s death, he paid him a visit in hospital and confessed he was having thoughts of leaving Barcelona to join Guardiola at Manchester City. Vilanova, it is said, told Messi he would find no place in the world like Barca. He decided to stay.
W — Wembley
The English stadium will always remain a sanctuary in Barcelona’s history. This is where the club won their first European Cup in 1992 after beating Sampdoria in extra time thanks to a free kick from Ronald Koeman.
Nineteen years later, Guardiola’s Barca would return for another Champions League final to outclass Manchester United in a 3-1 win.
X — Xavi
Xavi is the dream story for every local kid. Born and raised in Catalonia in a full Barca-supporting family, he joined the club’s youth ranks at a very young age and became the best in class at every single level.
He made his debut in 1998 under Louis van Gaal and then transformed himself into one of the world’s best players in a style moulded by Barcelona’s DNA. His name is strongly linked with Andres Iniesta, his best friend and generational talent who probably deserved a better spot in this A-Z guide (I’m sorry!).
To any La Masia youngster who aspires to be the perfect attacking midfielder, Xavi and Iniesta are without doubt the club’s two biggest role models.
Xavi played 870 games for Barcelona — only Messi has played more — scored 97 goals and won 25 major titles. Xavi joined the club as a manager in 2021 and won another league title in 2022-23, his first full season in charge.
Y — Yokohama
In Yokohama in 2011, Guardiola’s Barca won their second Club World Cup, beating Neymar’s Santos 4-0 in the final. The performance is remembered as arguably the finest and most complex evolution of Guardiola’s system, and left Neymar so impressed that it convinced him to join the club a year and a half later.
Guardiola played that game with a 3-7-0 formation. No striker, Cesc Fabregas as false nine, Thiago Alcantara as left winger, Dani Alves as attacking midfielder. A free-flowing system where positions didn’t matter because the players knew their game style too well.
Barcelona were arguably the best team the world had ever seen at that time.
Z — Ricardo Zamora
Zamora is one of the most renowned goalkeepers in Spanish football history. Popularly known as El Divino, his name is on the award given to the goalkeeper who concedes the fewest goals each year in the Spanish league.
He joined Barcelona from local rivals Espanyol, where he became a national legend. He spent three years at Barca, winning multiple trophies and becoming a face of the club’s golden generation in the 1920s.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
