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Player profiles: Messi & Xavi: Club history & Legends page:

Up to date results and season review

In this issue

E-Zine for Irish Barcelona F.C. supporters

Published by: CH Fitness: Text contributions by Colm Heffernan: First issue date June 2012:Images used with kind permission of Barcelona Football Club

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Messi FactsBorn: 24-06-1987

Birthplace:Sante Fe, Argentina

Previous Clubs:Grandiola, Newells Old Boys

Nationality:Argentina

Squad Number: 10

First Team Debut: 16-11-2003 (vs Porto)

First Goal: 01-05-2005 (vs Albacete)

Honours: World player of the year 2009, 2010 & 2011, 5Spanish League Championships, 3 UEFA ChampionsLeagues, 2 FIFA World Club Cups,

1 Olympic Gold Medal (Argentina)

Lionel Messi joined Barcelona at the age of 13having played for two of his local clubs inArgentina. After making his first team debut in

2003, Messi established himself in the first team in the2004/05 season. Although the team was alreadysuccessful and included such world stars as Ronaldinhoand Eto’o, Messi soon became the darling of the NouCamp crowd. When Ronaldinho departed in 2005,Messi inherited the No. 10 shirt which was also worn byhis childhood idol, Diego Maradona.

Messi’s goal against Getafe in 2007 had a strikingcomparison with Maradona’s against England in theworld cup in 1986. In the 2011/’12 season Messi scoredan astonishing 72 goals and secured his thirdconsecutive world player of the year award.

Player Profile:Lionel Messi

World player of the year 2009, 2010 & 2011

It is clear that Messi is on a levelabove all others. Those that do notsee that are blind (xavi)

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Most appearances in Barcelona FC history

Xavi FactsBorn: 25-01-1980

Birthplace: Terrassa, Spain

Previous Clubs: None

Nationality: Spanish

Squad Number: 6

First Team Debut: 18-08-1998

First Goal: 18-08-1998

Honours: 6 Spanish League Championships, 3 UEFAChampions Leagues, 2 FIFA World Club Cups, 1 WorldCup (Spain 2010), 1 UEFA European FootballChampionship (Spain 2008)

Xavi Hernandez has spent his entire football careerat Barcelona. He joined the club at 11 years of age

and worked up through the youth system known as “LaMasia”. He made his first team debut in 1998 butestablished himself as a first team regular in the1999/00 season following a long term injury to JosepGuardiola. He is considered the play-maker in theBarcelona team and his passing percentages often top90% during a game.

He helped Barcelona win the UEFA ChampionsLeague in 2009 and was voted as UEFA best

midfielder during that campaign and was voted “man ofthe match” during the final against Manchester United.He has been short-listed in the top 3 players for FIFAworld player of the year award in 2009, 2010 & 2011.

Player Profile:Xavi Hernandez

Xavi is a player who has theBarcelona DNA (Guardiola)

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Barcelona F.C. - History Page

Barcelona Les Cortsstadium 1922 - 1957

Barcelona’s first everclub crest - 1899

In November 1899, Barcelona football club wasfounded not by a Spaniard (or even a Catalan) but by a

Swiss born gentleman by the name of Hans-Max Kamper(later adopting the Catalan version of his name JoanGamper). In 1898 Kamper was on route to Africa onbusiness when he stopped off to visit his uncle inBarcelona. He fell so in love with the city that he decidedto stay. In late 1899, Kamper placed local advertisementdeclaring his desire to form a new football club.Following great interest in Kamper’s idea, FC Barcelonawas born on November 29th 1899.

Kamper was president of Barcelona FC on five seperateoccasions and one of his greatest achievements was toestablish the clubs first official home stadium in 1909. By1922 the club had moved to a larger stadium called LesCorts which would ultimately accommodate 60,000spectators.

Jack Greenwell was installed as the first full time manag-er of Barcelona F.C. and following this appointment theclub’s fortunes started to improve. During the Gamperera, FC Barcelona won eleven Campionat de Catalunya,six Copas del Rey, and four Pyrenees Cups.

Barcelona FC has often been intertwined withpolitical bickering and although the club was

originally founded by foreigners, it has become closelyassociated with Catalonian values. This closenessintensified when Spanish General and dictator Francobanned the use of the Catalan language. Cataloniansused Barcelona’s stadium as a central point todemonstrate their dissatisfaction.

In 1950 the club signed Ladislao Kubala, a playerconsidered to be the first superstar at Barcelona. Thispaved the way for great success for the club during the1950’s. The 1970’s saw the arrival of Johann Cruyffwho was adorned by the fans and the clubs reputationgrew around the world. Outstanding superstars such asDiego Maradona, Romario, Rivaldo and Ronaldinhohave carried on the great traditions of Barcelonafootball club through the 1980’s up to the present day.

The success that the club has experienced during morerecent years has cemented the club as one of theworlds most recognisable and supported clubs.Superstars such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta havehelped to take Barcelona F.C. To new levels within themodern game that many thought were not possible.

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Trophies and Honours Page

Head coach Guardiola with thefamous treble of 2009

To say the list of honours and trophies won by Barcelona F.C. during its113 year history is very large would be an understatement. As with most

other large European football clubs, the domestic league titles, national cupsand European cups (now known as the champions league) are the mainpriority in terms of the overall success of the club..

Barcelona have won their own domestic league on 21 occasions. First winningthe title in 1928-’29 and most recently in 2010-’11. This most recent triumphwas the clubs third league success in a row. Their Spanish cup titles, of whichthey are the current holders numbers 26. The most prestigious trophy inEuropean football today is the European cup (now known as the ChampionsLeague). Until 1992, Barcelona had never won this trophy, a fact whichwrangled terribly with the supporters. This was due to the fact that their archrivals Real Madrid had already secured the European cup on six occasions.Happily for Barca, the club has now won this trophy on four occasions with2011 being their most recent success. The fact that so many of the currentteam came through the youth system at the club is also a source of great pride.

Spanish League Titles: 21

Spanish Cups: 25

European Cups: 4

Spanish Super Cup: 10

Cup Winners Cup: 4

UEFA Cup: 3

European Super Cup: 4

FIFA World Club Cup: 2

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Season Review 2011-2012

Messi holds off Ronaldo in El Grand Classico

Barcelona came into the ‘11-’12 season full of optimismbased on the success of the previous season which saw

Barcelona win the league title for a third consecutive seasonand the champions league title for the third time in sixyears. The return of Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal and thepurchase of Alexis Sanchez from Italian club Udinese addedever greater firepower for the champions. The season beganwhere it had left off with Barcelona winning another title.This time it was the Spanish Super Cup where they defeatedarch-rivals Real Madrid 5-4 on aggregate. Two weeks laterthey had their second piece of silverware of this fledglingseason as they defeated Porto to win the UEFA Super Cup.

The defence of their Spanish league title got off to agood start overall but some small cracks soon began to

emerge. Dropped points early in the season saw Barcelonatrail Real Madrid, a trend that would continue for theremainder of the season. Their champions league campaignsaw the club emerge as group winners from a group whichalso contained AC Milan.

Barca’s champions league tie with AC Milan

The all important knockout stages of theChampions League saw Barcelona surge past

Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen . The game was mostnotable for Lionel Messi’s record breaking tally offive goals in a single Champions league game. ACMilan were next but Barcelona defeated the Italiangiants 3-1 on aggregate.

The season unfolded in a matter of three crucialgames. Chelsea FC pulled off one of the shocks ofthis, or any other season by defeating Barcelona overtwo legs and coming from two goals down at the NouCamp with only ten players to rescue the tie andprogress with an aggregate score-line of 3-2. Theultimate agony for Barcelona came as Real Madridwon at the Nou Camp in what was effectively theSpanish league title decider.

The team did manage to end the season in some stylewith a 3-0 defeat of Athletic Bilbao to clinch a record26th Spanish Cup title.

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The Youth Academy - La Masia

The Barcelona youth academy, known as La Masia has becomerenowned for its continuous production line of legendary

players for the club. It’s location is right next to the clubs NouCamp stadium and was originally built in 1702 as an ancientcountry residence. During the design and building of the NouCamp, the La Masia building was used as a workshop for thedesigners to model their project work. As the club grew in sizethrough the years it became apparent that the building wasn’t bigenough to use as a training location for youth players and duringthe 1970’s renovation work began to enlarge it.

The building is now used to train youthful players of the future. Inparticular, La Masia trains players who have to leave their ownhomes and move to the Barcelona region to fulfil their dreams andambitions to play for such a club.

The Facilities at La Masia are extensive. It consists of two floorsand a few attics. It houses 60 boys around the stadium in total. Itincludes a kitchen, dining room, living room, library, office andbathrooms along with four large dormitories with dressing rooms.

Josep Guardiola - Midfield & manager

Victor Valdes - Goalkeeper

Carlos Puyol - Defender

Xavi Hernandez - Midfielder & all time appearance record holder for Barcelona

Andres Iniesta - Midfielder & scorer of Spains world cup final winning goal

Lionel Messi - Striker & world player of the year for three consecutive years

Famous Players to emerge from La Masia

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Barcelona’s success over the past 6years

May 2006 Champions League Winners Barcelona 2 - 1 Arsenal

2008-2009 Six Trophies won

2011-2012 Spanish Cup Triumph

2010-2011 Season Champions League & La Liga Winners