Futbol Club Barcelona, or FC Barcelona as they are popularly called, is a professional football team based in Barcelona, Spain. They are considered to be one of the biggest clubs in Spain along with Real Madrid. The club was formed in 1899, thus making them more than 110 years old. The club is based on the Catalan culture and there is an intense movement that Catalan culture should be viewed separately from the Spanish one. None more than FC Barcelona demonstrate this attitude of people in their quest for the trophies.
The impressive Camp Nou Stadium is the home for Barcelona and it has a capacity of 99,354 people thus making it one of the largest in the world. Despite this, Barcelona are considering an extension for this Stadium, which would easily make it the largest in the world. It is odds-on to become the biggest football stadium in the world. If there is one club that does not have any problem when it comes to filling up the Stadium, it is Barcelona. The club has huge fan following not only in Spain, but also across the world. This is partly down to the football culture at Barcelona, which is based on beautiful flowing football rather than physical football.
Incidentally, this shift in ideologies started out in the Johan Cruyff era. The free-flowing attacking football was brought to the Camp Nou by the Dutchman, and the fusion between Spanish and Dutch football cultures has been nothing but successful. Unlike clubs from countries like England, Barcelona is not owned by an individual, but by the fans themselves. It is none more so than denoted by the motto ‘Més que un club’, which in English means ‘more than a club’.
Despite being run by the fans, Barcelona is one of the richest clubs in the world with annual turnovers almost touching the £400 million mark. Only the clubs, including their very own archrivals Real Madrid, can better this figure. When it comes to winning trophies, Barcelona have proved to be the only nemesis for Real Madrid, the other most successful club in Spain. So far, Barcelona has won 21 La Liga titles, which has been matched by the 11 UEFA titles. Other than these main victories, Barcelona is also the proud holder of a record 25 Spanish Cups, 2 League Cups, and 9 Spanish Super Cups.
Barcelona is also one of the very few clubs to have won every single trophy there is to contest in a single season. This remarkable feat happened in 2009 when Barcelona won six trophies, which also included a Champions League title, in one season. As of 2011, they proudly hold 4 European Cups, with two of them coming in a span of just three years. The club has overseen the presence of various players including Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, and the list even continues into current players like Lionel Messi. One of the most important games of the season for Barcelona is against archrivals Real Madrid and this game is also dubbed as the “El Clásico”.