Football Cities: Barcelona
Last time on our football cities series we were in the North German city of Hamburg and although Hamburger SV did manage to win a European Cup, they can’t begin to lay claim to the level of fame that one our clubs today has.
We’re taking a trip to the capital of Catalonia today for our second instalment of the series and taking a closer look at some of the clubs in Barcelona. It’s a huge city and the heart of what is a fiercely independent state within Spain. On top of that, it’s a city that’s steeped in history with the architecture of Antoni Gaudi hugely evident everywhere you go.
It also has some top level football clubs and none more so than the city’s eponymous club FC Barcelona, who are quite rightly regarded as one of the three biggest football clubs in the world. The club was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, Spanish, German and English footballers who were led by the Swiss-Spanish founder Joan Gamper.
Since then, they have become the most successful club domestically in Spain, winning 26 La Liga titles, 31 Copa del Rey’s, 13 Supercopa de Espana, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga titles. Let’s not forget their 5 Champions League’s and 3 Club World Cup’s as well. Barca are also the fourth most valuable sports team in the world and the world’s richest football team in terms of annual revenue, making over 840 million euros every year.
The team have been nicknamed Blaugrana by many because of the dark blue and red stripes that they traditionally play in and plenty of famous players have donned the famous shirt of Barcelona. The club has a record 12 Ballon d’Or wins with the recipients including Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi. In fact in 2010, Barca had a 1-2-3 in the Ballon d’Or rankings with Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi but even more amazingly, all three players had come through the club’s youth academy.
That youth academy is world famous and has produced a huge number of talents over the years. La Masia is back in the spotlight again as well because of the club’s current financial situation. Due to poor financial management and some high profile transfer flops, the Catalonian giants have over a billion euros of debt and once again need to rely on the steady stream of youngsters coming from their academy. That has allowed the likes of Gavi, Pedri, Ansu Fati and Ilaix Moriba to make their way into the first team to replace some of the talented players that have left Barca during their fire sale.
The city’s other big club that deserves a mention is RCD Espanyol. Founded just a year later than Barca in 1900 in Sarria, a very affluent district in the city, Espanyol were the first club to be formed in Spain by only Spanish football fans. Periquitos (Parakeets) originally played in bright yellow shirts but changed to their now iconic blue and white stripes in 1910.
Espanyol are back plying their trade in La Liga again, after winning the Segunda Division last season but certainly have a much more modest history than Barcelona. They’ve never topped La Liga but have won the Copa del Rey on four separate occasions, most recently in 2006. Periquitos have almost secured European glory twice as well, reaching the UEFA Cup final in 1988 and 2007 but losing on penalties both times, first to Bayer Leverkusen and then to fellow Spanish compatriots Sevilla.
The club has had some top players though, including the final years of Alfredo Di Stefano, a young Maxi Rodriguez and some of the prime years of Mauricio Pochettino.
Despite those two clubs being the big sides in the Catalonian capital, there are some smaller clubs in some of the suburbs and districts that we can briefly mention.
CE Europa ply their trade in the fourth tier of Spanish football but in the 1920’s were on a level playing field with Barcelona as one of the best teams in the region even finishing runners up in the 1923 Copa del Rey.
CF Badalona also play in the fourth tier and they have spent most of their history flirting with bankruptcy due to competing for popularity with the local basketball team. Badalona is also technically not in the city of Barcelona but it’s very close to the north so we’ll allow it.
Finally a special mention to CF Damm who are based in Barcelona but are a youth team that compete in Spain’s top youth league. What makes Damm so special though is their founders, Estrella Damm. Yes that is the beer company, you didn’t read it wrong. They may have a long standing relationship with Barca but they own Damm and the club logo bears the same star as the logo on the beer bottles. So for any beer fans out their maybe keep an eye of CF Damm.
That does it for today’s wrap up of Barcelona as a football city, we hope you’ve picked up some new knowledge or even better a team for a future football manager save.