5 Unknown Facts about Barcelona

It was back in the year 1899 when a man named Hans Kamper made a plan to form a football club. He gave an advertisement in the newspaper for that purpose. This led to a meeting at the Gimnasio Sole and a team of 11 members attended the venue. Joan Gamper presided over the meeting. A club was born and they named it Barcelona. Since then, everything they have done has become a part of history.  Giving a few FC Barcelona facts will never be enough as they have done so many remarkable things and listing a few won’t describe the history they have created.  Still, we have shortlisted a few of the little-known facts about FC Barcelona.

1. The first real stadium for Barcelona was situated close to the location of Camp Nou. It was too small for such a huge club and couldn’t accommodate growing number of Barca fans. So, the club officials felt the need of a new stadium and Camp Nou came into being in 1957. The new stadium had a capacity of accommodating 98,000 people. At present, Camp Nou is the largest stadium in Europe and the third largest stadium in the world.

2. The motto of Barcelona was “Mes Que un Club”, which means “More than a Club”. It was a symbol of Catalan nationalism especially during Franco’s dictatorship. But after Franquismo, the Catalan symbol and language were banned. In 1939, the club was ultimately forced to change their name to Club de Football Barcelona (FC Barcelona). Even they were ordered to remove Catalan Flag from the shield of the club. But even after those bans, this stadium remained one of the rare places where the Catalan language could be spoken. In 1974, the club finally decided to change their name to FC Barcelona.

3. Within Barcelona, players are required to speak in Catalan language. Joan Laporta, the president of Barcelona, is a self-proclaimed nationalist and has imposed this rule. However, some famous players like Lionel Messi are not required to speak in Catalan language. He used to spoke in the language once but that too when he was in a tipsy condition and talking over the megaphone.

4. For the first time after Barcelona was established, the club agreed to a shirt sponsorship deal with a Japanese firm named Rakuten. Before this, the team didn’t advertise for corporate sponsors on their jersey. On July 14^th of 2006, the club signed an agreement with UNICEF that added the logo of the organization for the first time in their history. In 2013, the Spanish giants changed their sponsors to Qatar Airways. However, they didn’t allow placing the sponsor’s logo on their jersey.

5. FC Barcelona is not the only Catalan team in the capital city. RCD Espanyol is another name and has argued that FC Barcelona club is full of foreigners. .The two clubs have been rivals to each other for a long time. But despite such rivalry, Barcelona has managed to remain calm and successfully kept a revolutionary spirit alive in them

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Author’s Bio: Kev Rob shares his time between watching footballs and writing for Golden Goals. Here he has touched upon five FCBarcelona facts little known to a larger number of football fanatics.