FC Barcelona
Overview
The club was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan football players led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a symbol of Catalan Culture and catalanism ever since. Barcelona's motto is "Més que un club" meaning "more than a club". In which is true as Barcelona football club is for millions around the world their life and soul. As shows as the club is one of many to be owned and operated by supporters and fans. This has still lead the club to being the world's second richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €483 million and being valued at €2.6billion making Barcelona the third most valuable club. The clubs main and fierce rivals are Real Madrid and games between the two sides are referred to as the "El Clasico".
Also, their home, the Nou Camp is one of the largest stadiums in the world and holds up to 99,000 supporters.
Success
Barcelona have won a staggering 22 La Liga titles, 26 Copa Del Rey's, 10 Supercopa de Espana's, 3 Copa Eva Duarte's, 2 Copa De La Liga's, 4 UEFA Champions League's, 4 EUFA Cup Winners' Cup's, 4 EUFA Super Cup's, 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup's and 2 FIFA Club World Cup's. Also, Barcelona is the only European club to have played continental football every season since 1955 and along with Athetic Bilbao and Real Madrid, never been relegated from La Liga. In 2009, Barcelona broke 2 amazing records in that they won 6/6 competitions in a single year including the La Liga, Copa Del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, this also broke the Spanish record of being the first team to win the treble.
Legends
Barcelona are a club thats built on Legends and have seen many come and go but none have ever been forgotten.
From the likes of Josp Maria Fuste and Carles Rexach in the 60's, to Johan Cruyff, Juan Manuel Asensi and Hugo Sotil in the 70's. Post 80's to the year 2000 brought legends such as Diego Maradona, Romario, Gary Lineker, Pep Guardiola, also managed the side to huge success, Txiki Begiristain, now at Man City, Ronald Koeman, Micheal Laudrup, now at Swansea City as Boss and Rivaldo.
The 21st century didn't see the drop of Legends being made at Barcelona, it brought more great players including Luis Figo, Frank Rijkaard, as manager, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o. Then when Pep Guardiola returned to Barcelona to take charge of the first team came a whole new era. Tiki-taka football was made and the old legends of Ronaldinho and Deco were removed for the team to be built around the midfield stars of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. Other legends prospered in this side also such as Carlos Puyol, Gerard Pique and Dani Alves. Young stars have now come in and will prosper after Tito Vilanova's short successful reign and will soon to join the list of legends, young players such as Pedro, Neymar and Alba.
The Manager
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Gerardo Daniel Martino. A Newell's Old Boys legend, playing just under 500 games for the club in three different spells as well as playing for Barcelona SC squad in 1996. Martino also made one appearance for Argentina in 1991. Martino has got lots of experience in managing lower ability sides including Brown de Arrecifes, Platense, Instituto, Libertad, Cerro Porteno and Colon. Then managing internationally with Paraguay he had relatively good success before managing old club Newell's Old Boys before then joining Barcelona. The media has been key to point out Lionel Messi's dad has a good relationship with Martino and are being accused of only hiring him to keep Messi at the club.