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Barcelona is the most successful club in Europe, with 90 major honours in their 118-year history.
Founded in 1899 by Joan Gamper, the club has come to signify the values represented by the city, its culture and its people.
It is the second richest football club in the world, and also, is one of the very few clubs owned entirely by its supporters.
With one of the largest fanbases in the world, Barcelona also boasts the largest stadium in Europe. Camp Nou has an enormous capacity of 99,354.
Barcelona's history is characterised by spells of dominance over European football, with the most recent one being Pep Guardiola's tenure for 4 seasons between 2008 and 2012, in which he lost only 11 matches.
While they have been criticised by a few fans for deviating from their core philosophies in recent years, the Blaugrana are still at the summit of European football, and will continue to dominate both the Spanish and continental scene for several years to come.
Here is a list of 5 things that come to the mind of an average football fan when one thinks of Barcelona:
#5 Ballon d'Or
Okay, this might not be the very first thing that comes to your mind, but a fact that isn't appreciated as much as it should be, is that Barcelona have the most number of winners in the history of the Ballon d'Or.
In the past, Barcelona players have won the most prestigious individual honour in world football 11 times (Messi of course, has contributed 5 times to that number).
The namesake of the Blaugrana's current Uruguayan hitman, Luis Suarez, was the first player from the Camp Nou to win the award in 1960.
In 1973 and '74, Dutch legend Johan Cruyff became the first player to win the award consecutively. He also won it in 1971, during his time with Ajax.
Exactly 20 years later, Hristo Stoichkov became the first (and only) Bulgarian to win it after a successful season where he helped Barca win the La Liga for the fourth consecutive time.
In 1999 and 2005, Brazilians Rivaldo and Ronaldinho were among the first non-Europeans to win the Ballon d'Or.
Lionel Messi then started his era of dominance in 2009, winning an unprecedented four times till 2012, when his streak was halted by Ronaldo for two seasons, before Messi reclaimed the world's most coveted individual trophy for a then-record 5th time in 2015.
Barca might be known for their intricate passing and teamwork, but they've had some pretty special individuals in the past.
#4 El Clasico
Local derbies pale in comparison to the biggest fixture in club football between two of La Liga's finest.
Long before Barca and Real established their domination over Spanish football, El Clasico came to be known as a fixture that pitted the strong independent ideology of Catalonia against the centralising tendencies of Madrid.
In a total of 269 Clasicos, Barca hold the edge with 111 wins, as opposed to Real's 99, although Los Blancos hold the record for the biggest win margin (11-1) during a Copa del Rey match in 1943.
Recent Clasicos have, however, come to represent a personal contest between Messi and Ronaldo rather than between two teams. That still doesn't take away the enormous hype surrounding the fixture.
Every year, it is the one fixture that all football fans, neutral or not, eagerly await. It is the one fixture that always draws a full crowd, the one fixture that inevitably decides which city the La Liga title goes to.
There will probably never be another fixture with the stakes as high as the El Clasico.
#3 La Masia
When you think football academy, you think La Masia.
The greatest footballing school in the world has produced world-class players ever since Johan Cruyff proposed the idea.
Recruiting around 200 players annually through a global scouting network, La Masia's graduates make up the bulk of the Barcelona B team that has experienced considerable success in Spain's second division.
Its never-ending production line provides players for Barcelona's youth teams, with several of them going on to play for the first team. Former boss Guardiola once said that a La Masia graduate is different from your average youth player because he's played in the Barcelona shirt since the age of six.
Indeed, when you boast a list of alumni that consists of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Busquets, that's not an invalidated statement.
In 2010, Messi, Iniesta and Xavi finished as the three finalists for the Ballon d'Or, the first (and maybe the last) time that all three were from the same footballing academy.
#2 Tiki-taka
Tiki-taka was Introduced by Johan Cruyff, and perfected by Pep Guardiola. Watching Barcelona play their trademark, possession-based, high-pressing short-passing game is as close to footballing perfection as anything else.
Characterised by extremely short passes, off the ball movement and playing the ball into channels, tiki-taka requires a lot of possession, and midfielders who can dictate the pace of play. Utilising triangular passing and high pressing fullbacks, the continuous pressure inevitably broke down defences.
Requiring a high amount of tactical intelligence, technical skills and vision, the array of players that Guardiola had available made it possible for his team to dominate opponents in a way that no other club team has ever managed to.
Cruyff is often not credited enough for the system that he developed during his incredibly successful spell at the club between 1989 and 1994. Tiki-taka was further used and promoted by Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard, with La Masia also adapting itself to produce more and more technically gifted midfielders.
The success that Barca experience under Guardiola was eventually extended to the Spanish national team as well, who used it to devastating effect during their wins at the 2008 and 2012 Euros and the 2010 World Cup.
In spite of its weakness against highly physical and counter-attacking teams, tiki-taka's success and its entertainment factor, meaning that it is used by teams all over the world.
#1 Lionel Messi
Obviously.
The best player in Barcelona's history, and possibly the best player of all time to have graced a football pitch. He might be Argentine by birth, but Messi was raised and moulded in La Masia to become the player that he is today.
Nearly everyone knows the lengths to which Barca went to secure Messi's signature - contracts signed on paper napkins and sponsorship for medical treatments for his growth hormone deficiency.
Having been given a debut by Frank Rijkaard, he quickly rose through the ranks to become the club's central figure after Ronaldinho left.
Throughout Barca's success over the past two decades, Messi has formed strike partnerships with Samuel Eto'o, David Villa, Thierry Henry and Luis Suarez, absolutely destroying virtually every defence he came up against.
At the age of 24, he became the Blaugrana's all-time record goalscorer in the year 2012. That same year, he went on to score 91 goals, breaking the record for the most goals scored in a single calendar year.
The innumerable goalscoring records that he holds would require another article entirely to list out. In spite of being primarily a midfield creator, his ball control, dribbling and finishing abilities make him one of the most potent forwards in world football.
His magic continues to weave itself at the age of 30, and he's shown absolutely no signs of slowing down. His goals-to-games ratio still remains typically inhuman. His era of personal dominance in the football world, and his personal rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo will probably remain unmatched forever.
Messi is not just Barcelona's most important player, he is Barcelona.
