21th century’s most successful soccer club Futbol Club Barcelona was founded in 1899 by the Swiss English and Catalan pioneer Joan Gamper. Joan Gamper, or Hans Gamper as he was named when given birth, is the founder of several soccer clubs including FC Basel, FC Zurich and FC Barcelona. From 1899 to 1922 is considered the birth of Futbol Club Barcelona. It was in this period the club started to make its name by participating in different tournaments including Campionat de Catalunya and Copa Del Rey. It was the Copa Macaya in 1902 that was the first silverware to hit the shelves of FC Barcelona.

In 1909 FC Barcelona moved to their first “real” stadium. With the capacity of 8000 spectators it was placed in the industrial district of “Camp de la industria”. FC Barcelona continued to participate in the cups around them, and the Pyrenees Cup was at the time being considered the finest cup in the area of Catalonia, Basque country and Languedoc of the southern France. It was during this period of 1910 to 1914 that the club changed its official language from Castilian (Spanish) to Catalan and it slowly became a symbol of the uprising civil war that later hit Spain.

In 1922 Joan Gamper and FC Barcelona had reached over 20.000 members which helped the club in the funding of a new stadium. The new stadium was built and named Les Corts and could hold 22.000 spectators.

While Joan Gamper was president for the club they won several trophies including;

11 Campionat de Catalunya

6 Copa del Rey

4 Pyrenees Cups

Joan Gamper was forced to turn over the club presidency after the crowd on the stadium made fun of the national anthem. This made the dictator Miguel Primo De Rivera so mad that he closed down the Barcelona stadium for 6 months. In 1926 the club was declared professional. The first Spanish cup was won by the Catalan team in 1928, and 2 years after the founder and former owner of the club Joan Gamper committed suicide after a period of depression with both personal and financial problems.

The club won several Campionat de Catalunya titles up until the civil war in 1936. However the success in the national cups did not come before the civil war broke out. The clubs office was bombed in 1938 resulting in over 3000 deaths and Catalonia came under occupation. Dark times were ahead for Catalonia where the Catalan flag was banned and the club was no longer allowed to call itself Futbol Club Barcelona. It was to be a Spanish name, and the Catalan flag in the Barcelona shield was to be removed. The club was renamed to Club de Futbol Barcelona.

In 1943 CF Barcelona faced Real Madrid in the semifinals of the Spanish cup Copa del Generalismo. Barcelona won the first match 3-0 in Barcelona and was to play the second leg in Madrid. Francisco Franco’s director of state security told the players that they were only playing in the cup because of the generosity of the regime. Real Madrid won 11-1 and the politics between the regions were tight.

Barcelona enjoyed their first La Liga win in 1945 and added two more wins in 1948 and 1949. Laszlo Kubala was signed in 1950 and his name is still well known in the Catalan capital. He helped he’s club winning 5 titles in 1952 and these included La Liga, Copa del Generalisimo which is now known as Copa del Rey, Copa Latina, Copa Eva Duarte and Copa Martini Rossi. Both La Liga and Copa del Generalisimo was won in 1953. In 1957 Camp Nou was built and financed purely by the members of the club. Throughout the 1960s Real Madrid were doing good in both La Liga and Copa Del Rey due to Francos dictatorship and money to buy players. With Francos dictatorship ending in 1974 CF Barcelona changed its name back to FC Barcelona. In the season 1973-74 FC Barcelona bought Johan Cruyff who won the supporters trust after saying that he could have joined Real Madrid, but said he could never play for a Franco supported club.