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For millions of football fans around the world, Christmas arrives early as Real Madrid host Barcelona for the 237th time. El Clasico is arguably the biggest footballing event of the year because of the many subplots, controversies and bragging rights that come with it.
A rivalry that started more than a century ago, it is filled with ecstatic as well as soul-crushing memories for both the sets of fans. And for people who have been living long enough to see their teams go through most of these memories, the Clasico becomes something much more than a football match.
Here are some of those incidents which the younger generation of fans would want to know and the older generation would love to reminisce.
#1 And so it begins...as a friendly
El Clasico is arguably the most intense rivalry in world football. It is only ironic that this rivalry started as a friendly. In the year 1902 when the king of Spain, Alphonso XIII, came of age as he turned 16.
To celebrate this occasion, Real Madrid hosted a friendly tournament and invited the Catalan club Barcelona and a Basque club Vizcaya. It was a special tournament because it was the first time that teams from different parts of the country were pitted against each other.
Barcelona were surprised that the Madrid side was so good for an amateur team, but soon they took the lead with the first ever Clasico goal scored by an Englishman Arthur Johnson. They eventually won the tie 3-1 and proceeded to the final where they lost to the team from Basque. The organisers, however, weren't happy as a tournament which was held to celebrate a Castilian monarch had a Catalan-Basque final.
The beginning few years were dominated by Barcelona and the fixture only became high-stakes much later.
#2 The 11-1 scoreline
Real Madrid hold the record for a win with the highest margin in an El Clasico. In the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal of the year 1943, Madrid thrashed a hapless Barcelona team 11-1.
The scoreline would remain etched in history but there was a lot more to the fixture than just the end result. During the World War II, Spain was ruled by Francisco Franco, a military general and a monarch. He wanted to make Spain a nationalist state by suppressing any autonomous and free-thinking culture and states by making Madrid as the centre of all power.
As a result, he imposed strict rules on the Basque and Catalonian regions, two semi-autonomous states by going as far as imprisoning people who spoke in any dialect other than Castilian. Needless to say, the tension between the capital city of Madrid and Catalonian regions kept rising.
Also read: Real Madrid 11-1 Barcelona: The story behind the most controversial El Clasico of all time
The football stadium, however, was one place where the common man could express his emotions freely thus making El Clasico so much more important for the fans as well as the players. Barcelona, after winning the first leg 3-0 at home, took to the media to rile up Madrid. This angered the Madrid fans and media alike.
When Barcelona left their hotel for the away fixture, stones were thrown at their bus by a group of Madrid fans. Things did not stop there as when they reached Madrid's stadium, they were met by a hostile police force who kept sledging the players. The director of State Security, a close confidant of Franco, visited the Barcelona dressing room before the match. He told them that they are playing now at the mercy of the state and that they must behave during the match.
On the pitch, they were met by a stadium full of Madrid fans as the Barcelona fans were banned from entering the stadium. Coins were thrown at them and death threats passed. The atmosphere affected the Barcelona players so much that they played while fearing for their lives. They ended up losing 11-1 as they gave up on the match even before they stepped on to the pitch.
#3 Freedom from Franco
After years of being suppressed under the rule of General Franco, Catalonia was finally freed from the clutches of dictatorship. And for Barcelona, the Clasico of 1975, following Franco's passing, marked an important occasion.
The fiercely competitive match ended in a Barcelona win who were playing unlike any of their previous teams, with an air of expressiveness and freedom to their game. Barcelona won courtesy an 89th minute winner from Carles Rexach, famously known to the younger generations as the man who signed Lionel Messi for Barcelona by offering an informal contract on a napkin.
The stadium burst into a frenzy as the Catalan supporters wildly celebrated the winner by waving a thousand Catalan flags, something that wasn't seen in the stadium since 1939. Barcelona's website describes the game as "the most wanted, dreamed of and applauded victory."
#4 Cruyff's Clasico debut
The success that Barcelona have been experiencing in the last ten years can be attributed to one thing- Total Football. And the man who brought it to Barcelona from Ajax was the legendary Johan Cruyff.
Barcelona signed Johan Cruyff in the summer of 1973 after holding off intense competition from Madrid for a then world record $2 million, exactly 20 years after losing Di Stefano to Madrid amid much controversy.
Johan Cruyff proved to a miracle signing as he scored one and assisted three goals in his memorable Clasico debut in which Barcelona won 4-0. This incident brought back the memories of Di Stefano scoring two goals on his Clasico debut to beat Barcelona.
Cruyff would later go on and win the El Clasico as a manager with his legendary "Dream Team" that had the likes of Pep Guardiola, Ronaldo Koeman and Michael Laudrup in the team.
#5 The Laudrup Saga
Speaking of Michael Laudrup, a man whose name often goes under the radar while discussing the best players ever, an interesting turn of events in the year 1994 would forever be remembered in the folklore of the El Clasico.
On the 8th of January 1994, the legendary Barcelona side fresh off their third consecutive La Liga title under Johan Cruyff, welcomed Madrid for the El Clasico at Camp Nou. They would go on to demolish Madrid 5-0 in that fixture with a team containing Romario, Guardiola, Koeman, Stoichkov and, well you've guessed it, Michael Laudrup.
After the fourth consecutive La Liga title under the belt, things, however, started to take a U-turn at Barcelona. During that time, Spanish sides could only field 3 foreigners at once. Cryuff had a huge dilemma on his hand because he had 4 great foreigners in his ranks. He decided to leave Laudrup in the dugout for the European cup final of 1994, a match in which they lost 4-0 to AC Milan.
This angered Laudrup and he decided to switch colours in the summer and join their bitter rivals Real Madrid. Exactly after a year of taking part in the 5-0 Clasico win for Barcelona, Laudrup went on to represent Madrid in the Clasico. A match in which the Los Blancos ironically won 5-0. Revenge never tasted sweeter for Laudrup as he won his fifth consecutive La Liga title that season, this time with Real Madrid.
