When you think of the biggest clubs in the world of football, FC Barcelona are undoubtedly one of the first names that come to mind.
One of Spain’s biggest clubs, Barcelona transcends the Spanish game and is one of the most popular teams in the world in any sport. Simply put, everything about the club is iconic. Why? Here are five good reasons.
#1 They represent an entire country...sort of
I don’t really want to go heavily into politics in a football article, but most people are aware of the fact that Catalonia – currently recognised as a part of Spain – wishes to be recognised instead as an independent country. After all, the region has its own language, history and culture.
Whether the idea of an independent Catalonia makes sense or not, FC Barcelona support the idea and as recently as a couple of months ago, threw their weight behind a call to have a binding referendum on Catalan independence once and for all – something the Spanish government heavily oppose.
But naturally, by supporting such a move, the club only gains in popularity with the Catalan people. The club’s motto – mes que un club – which translates to “more than a club” sums the idea up.
Also read: 5 ways to know that you are a Barcelona fan
Sure, Catalonia has another major La Liga side in Espanyol, but it’s Barcelona who have the history, the success, and the support of millions of fans across the world and of course, in Catalonia itself.
There aren’t many other clubs – if any – that essentially represent a whole country, or the idea of a potential country as it may be. Which is just one reason why Barca are one of the world’s most famous teams.
#2 Their history of success
As one of Europe’s biggest clubs it’s no surprise that Barcelona are also one of the most successful, but even compared to other huge clubs like Manchester United and Bayern Munich, their list of honours is absolutely astonishing.
They’ve won La Liga a staggering 24 times, the Copa del Rey 29 times and the Supercopa de Espana 12 times, and that isn’t mentioning a further five smaller domestic trophies. On the European scene, they’ve won the European Cup/Champions League on five occasions, five UEFA Super Cups, four European Cup Winners Cups, and three of the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cups. Oh, and they’ve also won the FIFA World Club Cup on three occasions.
The only club side that can match this sort of success? Naturally it’s Barcelona’s bitter rivals Real Madrid, who have more La Liga and Champions League wins, but don’t quite come close to Barca’s overall trophy haul when it comes to the more minor competitions. Overall, Barca have 90 trophies while Real have 85 – even if Real have a few more of the really big ones.
There’s no shame in being second to Real Madrid when it comes to a trophy haul, and their huge amount of success is another reason why they’re one of world football’s most famous clubs.
#3 Their list of notable players
Iconic clubs have to have iconic players, and boy have Barcelona had some icons pull on that famous shirt over the years. Right now, their most famous players are the trio of strikers known as ‘MSN’ – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Junior. They’re probably the most feared line-up of attackers in European football right now and the presence of those three alone would be enough to make a side iconic.
But go back in history and the names just keep rolling, like a who’s who of world football over the years. The 1970’s saw Dutch genius Johan Cruyff star for the club alongside countryman Johan Neeskens, while the 1980’s saw the legendary Diego Maradona at the height of his powers – as well as an icon of English football a little later in Gary Lineker.
But it’s the 90s era where you’ll find the biggest names. Johan Cruyff returned to the club as a manager in the 1988/89 season and began to build an incredible side, a side that became known as the ‘Dream Team’. And the names there are literally incredible. Romario, the Laudrup brothers, Hristo Stoichkov, Gheorghe Hagi, to name a handful.
Later in the decade came the likes of Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o, and so on. And that isn’t even touching on Pep Guardiola’s legendary side of the 2000’s! Essentially, nobody has a history of iconic players quite like Barcelona.
#4 They produced arguably the best club side ever
Cryuff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ were great, of that there can be no doubt. But in terms of truly great sides, one comes to mind when it comes to Barcelona and that’s Pep Guardiola’s side of the late 2000s.
A legendary midfielder himself, Guardiola took over the club in 2008 after managing the youth team for a period. During that period he innovated a largely new tactic that would come to be known as ‘tiki-taka’ – basically a style of play characterised by a large number of short passes, keeping the lion’s share of possession, using midfielders in defence to capitalise on their passing ability and having a goalkeeper equally skilled with his feet in order to play the ball out from the back.
Various tweaks have been made to the system to make it work for other sides, but Barcelona’s use of it remains the most famous as Guardiola’s players had grown up with it as they came through the club’s La Masia academy. The likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Pedro came to symbolise the style and along with teammates like Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, were recognised by some experts as the best club side in football history.
Few clubs can say they had a side worthy of being arguably the greatest of all time; even fewer can lay claim to actually innovating a new style of playing that would inspire other great sides. That’s why Barcelona are special.
#5 Their rivalry with Real Madrid is probably the biggest in the game
Okay, so every country has bitter rivalries in football – Scotland has the Glasgow derby, Italy has the Milan derby, England has Manchester United vs. Liverpool, and so on. But nothing really comes close to the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose individual games against one another have become known as El Clasico.
Where does the rivalry come from? Well, not only are Madrid and Barcelona the two biggest cities in Spain, but the clubs also identify with opposing political positions too – Barcelona with Catalonian independence, and Madrid with Spanish nationalism. That’s enough for a really tasty rivalry in itself, but the history between the two clubs runs a lot deeper than that.
For instance, there’s the controversial transfer back in the 1950s of Alfredo di Stefano – both clubs claimed to hold his registration and the whole issue required FIFA to step in, and although the ruling was that the player was to represent both sides in alternate seasons, Barca eventually gave up and he led Madrid to a lot of success. More recently of course, Luis Figo notoriously made the move from Barca to Real – and became despised by the Barca fans in the process.
In terms of results, Real lead Barca when it comes to competitive matches – they have 93 wins to Barca’s 91 – but in overall matches it’s Barcelona in the lead with 110 wins to Real’s 97. But needless to say, despite all the bitter hatred between the two, the rivalry drives both sides on to even more greatness, which is why it’s so important to the identity of both sides.
El Clasico is the world’s most famous football game, giving us another reason for Barcelona’s worldwide fame.
