Barcelona Club History
On November 29, 1899, when Swede Hans Joan Gamber founded Barcelona Football Club in a gym called sole (Sun) At that time, he would never have imagined how much suffering and humiliation the club would bear in the long years to come, how much passion and struggle it would witness, and how much dreams and glory it would entrust! In more than 100 years of ups and downs, FC Barcelona has experienced countless tests and struggled with destiny in the dark ages. It is more than just a club, it represents a belief, a value, and a culture. This unique culture closely links supporters and the club with unswerving determination, and has also made Barcelona a well-deserved world powerhouse.
In the early days, the watchmaker Mr. Gamper invested a lot of personal money and energy into the club, providing everything the team needed, including jerseys, logistics, footballs and venues, and also determined The red and blue colors of Barcelona. Known as the father of Barcelona football, the Nordic man is still admired today: information and records about him can be found everywhere in museums; the warm-up match held at Camp Nou before each season is also named after him.
There are two theories about the origin of the red and blue tones used by the club: one is that Mr. Gamber works with two-color pencils every day, so these two colors are used as the team's colors; the other is that One theory is that the team's initial jerseys and other equipment came from Sweden, where football was developed relatively early, so the colors of Mr. Gamble's hometown team later became the colors of Barcelona. Blue symbolizes melancholy and red symbolizes passion. Perhaps it is God's will that this may have been an unintentional move at the beginning actually accurately covers the characteristics of Barcelona.
After 1903, Barcelona has developed greatly. In 1910, Barcelona was officially registered with the Spanish Football Federation and qualified to participate in the Spanish Cup, the only tournament in Spain at that time. On May 20, 1922, Barcelona's first main stadium, the Cathedral Stadium, was officially completed and put into use. This very luxurious stadium at the time could accommodate 30,000 people, and was later expanded to 60,000 people. By the time the club celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1924, membership had grown to 12,207. The decade from 1919 to 1929 is considered Barcelona's first golden period. Before the start of the Spanish League, Barcelona had won eight Spanish Cups.
In 1928, the Spanish National League officially began, and the first season was a competition between Barcelona and Madrid. Barcelona got off to a bad start and was defeated in the first round. Real Madrid led the first 12 of the 18 rounds, but then it was Barcelona's turn to perform. They worked hard to catch up, and by the penultimate round of the league, the two teams had 23 points. In the final round, the Barcelona boys went to Madrid under tremendous pressure. At the opponent's home court, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 1:0 and won the first Spanish League championship. This first season of competition has also become a microcosm of La Liga in the following decades.
However, due to various political reasons, Barcelona began to suffer a huge blow from non-sports aspects. The home court was ordered to close for 6 months, and Mr. Gamber was also forced to step down. Subsequently, the team encountered a financial crisis and Due to the social crisis, even the number of members began to decrease.
In 1931, Spain overthrew the king and established a communist government. But soon Franco rebelled and the Spanish Civil War began. In order to defend the Republic of France, the Catalans fought desperately against the dictator. People from all over the world formed an international column and rushed to Barcelona, ??the final battlefield. But with the support of Hitler and Mussolini and the connivance of the West, Barcelona fell and the Republic of Korea fell heroically.
In the following years, the Barcelona Club, like Barcelona as a whole, suffered brutal blows and oppression. The club president was shot for "treason" and the membership was ordered to be reduced to a mere 3,486 people. Franco was forcibly appointed as the president of Barcelona. The Barcelona players escaped death while touring the Americas, but many of the main players left the team and went into exile overseas.
Although the blood of freedom has almost dried up and the smoke of war has dissipated, the anger of resistance has never subsided. As the only place where emotions can be released, people pin their desire for revenge on every win or loss on the court.
Barcelona and Madrid, the football competition between the two cities, has finally evolved into a veritable "Spanish Derby" and "The Battle of the Century."
Although in that shameless and sensational game in 1943, the Barcelona players had to win 11-3 due to the serious favoritism of the referee and the death threats of thousands of armed policemen surrounding the stadium. They lost the game with a huge disparity, and even the fascist minions couldn't bear it and resigned. But what is gratifying is that Barcelona quickly cheered up and became a great team again, winning 1944/1945, 1947/1948 , the league championship in three seasons in 1948/1949, when the club celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1949, its membership had reached 24,893.
When the long-haired Kubala, a descendant of Gypsies, rejected the temptation of Madrid's high salary and joined Barcelona in June 1950, the team ushered in the 1951 to 1954 season again. Another golden age. In the past few years, Barcelona won the league championship and cup championship for three years from 1951 to 1953, and also became the five crown champions at the time in the 1951/1952 season.
Before the 1950s, the real strong players were Barcelona and Bilbao. At this moment, the turning point of fate came. Di Stefano, the genius of that era, planned to break into Europe. Barcelona contacted him first and quickly signed a transfer contract. Not long after, Real Madrid, which was suffering from poor record, also quietly extended its tentacles to Di Stefano. Since Barcelona had the upper hand, Madrid decided to play a conspiracy and take advantage of the chaos in FIFA at the time to sign a contract with Stefano's former club, River Plate, and use this to threaten Barcelona. The dispute between the two parties continued to escalate, and finally reached the Royal Court of Arbitration for Sport. After Franco's intervention, the Royal Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Di Stefano alternated between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The proud Barcelona regarded this as a great shame and humiliation. In order to protest the injustice, they simply gave up all ownership. Madrid's fortunes began to turn around for Di Stefano, and Barcelona paid a huge price for their impulse.
The failure to compete for Stefano directly led to the resignation of the club's president at the time, and his successor focused all his energy on building a new stadium and solving the growing capacity problem. Although World War II has ended and fascism has perished, the situation in Iberia has not changed. The club's ties with Catalan society have become increasingly close, and the original stadium can no longer meet the growing needs. On September 24, 1957, Barcelona's new home stadium - Camp Nou, which can accommodate 90,000 people, was officially opened. That day happened to be a traditional festival, and the entire Barcelona citizens dressed up and gathered at the new stadium to celebrate. Barcelona won two league championships in the 1958-1959 and 1959-1960 seasons, and won the Fairs Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Cup, in the 1957-1958 and 1959-1960 seasons. Unfortunately, bad luck has plagued Barcelona since the 1960s, and it all started with the 1961 Champions League final. It was the most unlucky final in the history of the Champions League. Although Barcelona was more talented, more aggressive, more motivated, and more powerful than their opponents, and took the lead first, the usually stable goalkeeper made many serious mistakes during the game, helping their opponents lead 3-1. But Barcelona then took control of the situation and pulled a goal back. No one doubts that Barcelona will catch up or even overtake. Unfortunately, despite hitting the goalpost three times in the last 15 minutes, including Kubala's last kick before the end, which bounced off the opponent's goalkeeper and then hit the other goalpost, the team was ultimately unable to change the situation. score. When the final whistle blew, the Barcelona commentator shouted sadly: "Cry out, players, your performance is impeccable; cry out, fans, fate has never been so unfair to a team in history. Just cry out." Like Bern 7 years ago, the best team in the world was so close to the championship, but ended up with nothing!"
This defeat severely damaged the team's vitality, and Kubala chose to retire. , Barcelona's first World Footballer Suarez went to Italy and created the glory of Inter Milan. Barcelona won only three championships in the following 10 years.
In the 1970s, the team recruited the "father of total offense and total defense", Dutch coach Michels. He then recruited his favorite disciple, the legendary figure in Dutch football history, John Crew. Yves. The Dutchman made Barcelona great again.
The year Cruyff arrived, the club won the league title on its 75th anniversary. Especially on February 17, 1974, Barcelona defeated their opponents 5-0 in Madrid. This game was regarded by Barcelona fans as the "eternal championship trophy." Just 8 days before this game, Cruyff was blessed with a son. He named him Jordi, after the patron saint of Barcelona. Since then, Cruyff has closely linked his life to Barcelona.
On May 6, 1978, Nunez, the greatest president in Barcelona's history, was elected. With the political thaw, the club began a stage in which its influence continued to expand, its membership continued to surge, its finances continued to increase, and its facilities were constantly updated. Camp Nou became the largest and most modern stadium in Europe, known as the "European Dream Theater". The construction was also an unprecedented success. Barcelona won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1979 and the Copa del Rey in 1981 and 1983. Under the leadership of Venables, they won the league championship after an absence of 11 years. But the road ahead was not smooth sailing. Maradona, who was bought at the world's highest price at the time, was not on good terms with the club, and letting Mexican Hugo Sanchez go was a huge mistake. All the conflicts finally broke out after the defeat in the 1986 Champions League final: in the penalty shootout, the opponent's goalkeeper miraculously saved the shots of all Barcelona players, as if the curse of 1961 reappeared. Venables was sacked soon after. In 1988, Nunez made a crucial and far-reaching decision to bring back Cruyff, the hero of the year. Cruyff carried out drastic reconstruction at the beginning of his tenure, and soon established a top team with a gorgeous style and a perfect combination of local players and foreign aid, and won almost every honor that could be won. In 1992, Barcelona defeated Sampdoria at Wembley and won the coveted Champions League. This victory caused the whole of Barcelona and even Catalonia to boil. People respected that team as the "Dream Team" and regarded it as the eternal pride of Barcelona.
Due to personality conflicts and health reasons, Cruyff left the club in 1996 and has since faded away from football. The club is still moving forward. In his short one-year coaching career, Bobby Robson led his team to win the European Cup Winners' Cup, Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and league runner-up. He scored over 100 goals in the league and became an unknown team at the time. Ronaldo was trained to become the World Footballer and the most successful head coach in Europe that year, but the club replaced him with another Dutchman Louis van Gaal. Van Gaal has led the team for three years and achieved good results. Not only did he win the double crown for the first time in 39 years, he also promoted and trained young people such as Javier and Puyol, creating a team that is respected by all of Europe. team. However, due to his overly stubborn personality and too many enemies, coupled with the introduction of many direct Dutch players, the balance of the team was broken. Although he was recognized as the most dedicated head coach in many years, he failed to achieve anything in one season. Can't stay any longer. Nunez, who strongly supported him, finally resigned in July 2000 because he was getting older and could not bear the criticism and pressure from the outside world. A great era is over.
The successor Gaspart has been a member of Barcelona since the age of 9 and is the most successful deputy in the history of the club. Together with Nunez, he created the glory of Barcelona, ??but at the same time he is also the most successful deputy in the history of the club. One of the blaming presidents. Less than 24 hours after taking office, he encountered a shameless betrayal, which caused him to lose his way. During his tenure, the club's management was chaotic and without a plan. The team spent countless money to buy players and owed more than 200 million in foreign debt, but achieved nothing in terms of results; inside the club, the club and the fans, the club and the media, and the fans There were many conflicts with the media, six vice-chairmen resigned angrily, the club fell into an abyss of despair, and the anger of Barcelona members reached the extreme. On December 15, 2002, after Barcelona was severely beaten 3-0 by Sevilla at home, the white handkerchiefs in protest turned into a tsunami of "resign" roars. Gaspart subsequently took the blame and resigned.
After barely finishing in sixth place, in 2003, the club held a new general election. Juan Laporta, a young lawyer who was not expected to win in advance, unexpectedly won. He began to vigorously implement reforms and formed a new leadership agency. At the same time, members of the "Dream Team" of that year also came back from all directions and took up the important task of saving the club.
Despite a new look from top to bottom, the team still had a rough start and even dropped to 12th place. As Madrid cheered for the first time in 20 years at the Camp Nou, things had come to a head. Starting from January 2004, after four years of depression, the proud Catalan giant finally began to break out. The team began to rise at a speed that no one could have imagined: after unstoppably winning 10 consecutive games and overwhelming Madrid, , the team finally won the league runner-up and completed a dramatic and shocking reversal. Inspired by this great encouragement, the team continued their efforts and finally regained the long-awaited league championship in the 2004/05 season. In the 2005/06 season, they won the La Liga championship with a record number of points and won the European Championship again in Paris. League trophy.
FC Barcelona’s reputation is world-class and it has left a deep impression in all aspects: 25 times Spanish Cup champion ranks first in Spain, 4 times European Cup Winners Cup champion ranks first in Europe First, it is also one of the four teams to complete the Grand Slam of the three major European Cups. What's even more valuable is that since the European competition began in 1955, Barcelona is the only team in Europe that has never missed the three major cup competitions. After entering the new century, Barcelona's social status has become increasingly important. Barcelona now has more than 130,000 members, thousands of fan clubs, and more than 20 million people watching games outside Europe. In the summer of 2004, FC Barcelona, ??which has a history of more than 100 years, visited China for the first time and inaugurated the first Barcelona Fans Association in China (Barcelona Chinese Tennis Fans Association), thus beginning its contact with ancient China. FC Barcelona executives firmly believe, Barcelona members firmly believe, and Barcelona fans around the world also firmly believe that despite encountering various difficulties and setbacks, FC Barcelona with its legendary history and extraordinary achievements will definitely continue to move forward.