FC Barcelona turns 120 years old

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  • The club was officially formed on November 29 in 1899.
  • Barca played their first-ever match against the local English community.
  • During their 120-year history, the Catalans have won 26 La Liga trophies and five Champions League titles.

November 29, 1899, is the exact date when the Barcelona football club was officially formed by legendary Hans Gamper. Born on 22 November 1877 near Zurich in Switzerland, Gamper was a sportsman who was involved in athletics, golf, cycling, etc. He arrived in the Catalan capital in 1898.

Gamper would then publish his famous article in the Los Deportes magazine in which he called for foreigners and locals to join him and form a football club. The newly established FC Barcelona played their first-ever game on 8 December at the ancient Bonanova velodrome. This match was against the members of the English community living in the city.

Gamper would later review this ‘fixture’ against the so-called ‘English Colony’ as he wrote an article for his native sports magazine Schweizer Sportblatt. A digital copy and translation currently belong to the FC Barcelona Archive.

In this piece, Gamper claims Barcelona only had nine men and opted for an odd 2-3-3 formation. Even though the Englishmen emerged victorious with a 1-0 scoreline, they would later decide to join forces with Gamper and ‘merge’ into the newly-formed FC Barcelona.

During their 120-year history, Barcelona have won 26 La Liga trophies; the record-breaking numbers of 30 Copa del Rey cups and 13 Spanish Supercopa trophies; five Champions League titles, five UEFA Supercups and three Club World Cup accolades. Lionel Messi is currently the club’s most decorated player with 34 titles.

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Source: Tribuna.com

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