Birth of FC Barcelona on 22 October 1899, Hans Kamper placed
an advertisement in Los Deportes declaring his wish to form a football club; a
positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on 29 November.
Eleven players attended—Walter Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto
Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John
Parsons, and William Parsons—and Foot-Ball Club Barcelona was born.
FC Barcelona had a successful start in regional and national
cups, competing in the Campionat de Catalunya and the Copa del Rey. In 1902,
the club won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya, and participated in the first
Copa del Rey, losing 1–2 to Bizcaya in the final. Kamper—now known as Joan
Gamper—became club president in 1908, finding the club in financial difficulty
after not winning a competition since the Campionat de Catalunya in 1905. Club
president on five separate occasions between 1908 and 1925, he spent 25 years
in total at the helm. One of his main achievements was ensuring Barça acquire
its own stadium and thus generate a stable income.
On 14 March 1909, the team moved into the Camp de la
Indústria, a larger stadium with a seating capacity of 8,000 people. From 1910
to 1914 Barcelona participated in the Pyrenees Cup, which consisted of the best
teams of Languedoc, Midi, Aquitaine, the Basque Country, and Catalonia. At that
time it was considered the finest competition open for participation. During
the same period, the club changed its official language from Castilian to Catalan
and gradually evolved into an important symbol of Catalan identity. For many
fans, supporting the club had less to do with the game itself and more with
being a part of the club's collective identity.
Gamper launched a campaign to recruit more club members, and
by 1922 the club had over 20,000 members and was able to finance a new stadium.
The club to moved to the new Les Corts, inaugurated the same year. Jack
Greenwell was recruited as the first full-time manager, and the club's fortunes
began to improve on the field. During the Gamper era, FC Barcelona won eleven
Campionat de Catalunya, six Copas del Rey, and four Pyrenees Cups. This
coincided with the club's transition to professionalism; in 1926 the directors
of Barcelona publicly declared Barcelona a professional side for the first
time. The club's 1928 victory in the Spanish Cup was celebrated with a poem
titled "Oda a Platko", written by a member of the Generation of '27,
poet Rafael Alberti, who was inspired by the "heroic performance" of
the Barcelona keeper. On 30 July 1930, Gamper committed suicide after a period
of depression brought on by personal and financial problems. Although the team
won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936, and 1938, On 6
August, Josep Sunyol, the club president and representative of a
pro-independence political party, was murdered by Falangist soldiers near
Guadarrama. Dubbed the martyrdom of barcelonisme, the murder was a defining
moment in the history of FC Barcelona. In the summer of 1937, the squad went on
tour in Mexico and the United States, where it was received as an ambassador of
the Second Spanish Republic. That tour secured the club financially, but also
resulted in half the team seeking asylum in Mexico and France. On 16 March
1938, Barcelona came under aerial bombardment, resulting in over 3,000 deaths;
one of the bombs hit the club's offices. Catalonia came under occupation a few
months later. As a symbol of 'undisciplined' Catalanism, the club, down to just
3,486 members, faced a number of restrictions. After the Civil War, the Catalan
flag was banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish
names. These measures forced the club to change its name to Club de Fútbol
Barcelona and to remove the Catalan flag from its club shield. Despite the
difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during
the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with Josep Samitier as managers and players like
César, Ramallets, and Velasco, they won La Liga for the first time since 1929.
They added to this total in 1948 and again in 1949. They also won the first
Copa Latina that year. In June 1950, Barcelona signed Ladislao Kubala, who was
to be an influential figure at the club.
On a rainy Sunday in 1951, the crowd left Les Corts stadium
after a 2–1 win against Santander on foot, refusing to catch any trams and
surprising the Francoist authorities. A tram strike was taking place in
Barcelona, which received the support of blaugrana fans. Events such as this
made the club represent much more than just Catalonia; many progressive
Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender of rights and freedoms.
Managers Ferdinand Daučík and László Kubala led the team to
five different trophies including La Liga, the Copa del Generalísimo, the Copa
Latina, the Copa Eva Duarte, and the Copa Martini Rossi in 1952. In 1953, the
club won La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again.
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real
Madrid monopolising La Liga. The building of the Camp Nou, completed in 1957,
meant the club had little money to spend on new players.
The 1973–74 season saw the arrival of Johan Cruyff, who was
bought for a world record £920,000 from Ajax. Already an established player in
the Netherlands, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the
European press he chose Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a
club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose the
Catalan name Jordi, after the local saint, for his son. Next to players of
quality like Juan Manuel Asensi, Carles Rexach, and Hugo Sotil, he helped the
club win the La Liga title in 1973–74 for the first time since 1960, He was
crowned European Footballer of the Year in 1973 during his first season with
Barcelona . Cruyff received this prestigious award a third time in 1974 while he was still with Barcelona.
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