Team FC Barcelona Has a Long History

The Futbol Club Barcelona, a.k.a. FC Barcelona, has a lenghty history dating back to 1899. The team is also known as Barcelona as well as “Barca.” Their home base is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The original team consisted of English, Spanish, and Swiss players headed by Joan Gamper. Their amateur status remained with them until 1910 at which time they played in their first European competition.

Initially the club went through some difficult times. In 1908 Camper became the club president as the team wavered on the verge of bankruptcy. The following year the FC Barcelona moved into their own stadium, Camp de la Industria, which seated 8,000 fans. The club held a contest for someone to create their logo. The winning logo was submitted by Carles Comamala and this is the same crest the team wears today. in the following years the team changed their language from Castilian to Catalan. This eventually brought about an important identity with the Catalan.

Gamper continued supporting the team and built the club membership to 20,000 by 1922. This helped the team to have the finances to open a new stadium named Les Cortes. It offered nearly three times the capacity of their former stadium and it later grew to a capacity of 60,000. During Gamper’s reign the team won 11 Campeonato de Cataluna, along with four Pyrenees Cups, six Copa del Rey along with many fans.

During the era of 1923 to 1957 the club weathered some political issues. This resulted in Gamper losing the presidency of the club. In 1930, suffering from financial and personal issues Gamper committed suicide. Despite the numerous set-backs the team continued on with considerable success. The team hired Josep Samitier as their coach. Players such as Velasco, Ramallets, and Cesar brought about more success. Then, in 1950, Ladislao Kubala was signed on. Kubala was considered by many as the club’s best player. He inspired the team and led them to many victories.

Years later Helenio Herrera was signed on as the FC Barcelona’s coach. One of his players, Luis Suarez, was named the European Footballer of the Year in 1960. Two other players, Sandor Kocsis and Zoltan Czibor, were signed and helped the team win a national double in 1959. They also won the La Liga and Fairs Cup double the following two years. They also became the first team to beat Real Madrid in a European Cup play-off.

One of the greatest players of all-time, Johan Cruyff, joined the team in 1973. He had already been an outstanding player for Ajax. He was quick to win over his new fans in Barcelona. During his first year he was named as the European Footballer of the year.

In 1979 FC Barcelona won the teams first Cup Winners Cup. They did this by defeating Foruna Dusseldor 4-3 in a final watched by more than 30,000 blaugrana fans. In 1982 the team signed on Diego Maradona at a world record fee. Despite his success he soon left the club. Soon the team found themselves in another political issue. It involved the presidents perceived dictatorial style and the nationalistic support group. However, the team remained healthy and recruited such players as Gary Lineker and Andoni Zubizarreta. In 1988 the team brought Cruyff in as their club manager. He assembled what became to be known as the “dream team.”

The team went on to accumulate a number of outstanding players. They, in turn, helped to assemble a number of championships They won the 2009 Supercopa de Espana and this year they won the La Liga for the second year in a row.