Barcelona

History of FC Barcelona: "Més que un club", from Gamper to a Twenty-Ninth Title

Founded by a Swiss, a symbol of Catalan identity, and the originator of a playing school copied across the world, FC Barcelona are far more than a football club. In May 2026 they claimed a twenty-ninth Spanish championship — in a decisive Clásico.

1. Joan Gamper and the Foundation (1899–1935)

On 29 November 1899, a Swiss accountant from Winterthur, Hans Gamper — who would become Joan Gamper — placed an advertisement in a Barcelona sports paper seeking players. Eleven men answered, and Foot-Ball Club Barcelona was born. Gamper, also behind the founding of FC Zürich, would serve five terms as president and gave the club its blaugrana colours. Barça won several Copas del Rey and the first Spanish championship in history in 1929.

2. "Més que un club": Football and Catalan Identity (1936–1972)

The Civil War marked the institution profoundly: president Josep Sunyol, a Catalanist member of parliament, was executed in 1936. Under the dictatorship, the club — whose name and crest were forcibly Hispanicised — became one of the few spaces where Catalan identity could be expressed, which gave rise to its motto, "més que un club", more than a club. On the pitch, the Hungarian László Kubala drew crowds so large that the club built the Camp Nou, opened in 1957 and long the largest stadium in Europe.

3. Cruyff the Player, Cruyff the Coach and the Dream Team (1973–1996)

The arrival of Johan Cruyff as a player in 1973 was a jolt of electricity: in his first season Barça were champions and humiliated Real Madrid 5–0 at the Santiago Bernabéu. Returning as coach in 1988, Cruyff built the Dream Team and imposed a playing philosophy — possession, width, positional play — that would become the club's DNA. The result: four consecutive championships (1991–1994) and above all Barça's first European Cup, won at Wembley in 1992 through a Ronald Koeman free-kick. Cruyff also restructured La Masia, the academy that would become the most productive in world football.

4. Ronaldinho, Guardiola and the Sextuple (1997–2012)

After a second Champions League in Paris in 2006, driven by Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o, the club handed the first team in 2008 to a former Dream Team captain: Pep Guardiola. What followed has no equal. In 2009 alone, Barça won all six available titles in a calendar year — league, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish and European Super Cups, Club World Cup: a sextuple unique in football history. In four seasons Guardiola won fourteen trophies and refined tiki-taka to a level rarely matched, around Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets — all products of La Masia.

5. The MSN Trio, the Remontada and the Crisis (2013–2023)

In 2015 Luis Enrique delivered a second treble through the Messi–Suárez–Neymar trio. In 2017 the Camp Nou lived one of the wildest nights in history: 4–0 down from the first leg, Barça beat PSG 6–1 with three goals in the closing minutes — the "remontada". Then came the dark years: an 8–2 elimination by Bayern in 2020, a major financial crisis and, in the summer of 2021, the departure of Lionel Messi, the club's all-time leading scorer with 672 goals and eight Ballons d'Or. The club moved temporarily to Montjuïc while the Camp Nou was rebuilt.

6. Renewal Through La Masia and the 2025–26 Title

The rebuild came, once again, through youth development. Under Hansi Flick, Barça completed a domestic treble in 2024–25 — league, Copa del Rey and Super Cup — driven by an explosive generation led by Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí.

The 2025–26 season confirmed that return to the summit. On 10 May 2026, in the most symbolic scenario imaginable, FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2–0 in the Clásico and mathematically secured the title with three matches to spare: their twenty-ninth Spanish championship, and a second in a row.

In the Champions League, the club produced a spectacular round of 16, seeing off Newcastle United 8–3 on aggregate, before losing the quarter-final to Atlético Madrid (2–3 on aggregate). In the Copa del Rey, as holders, they were eliminated in the semi-finals by the same Atlético.

7. Looking to 2026–27: The Return to Camp Nou

Since the restart, Barça have pursued two objectives: retaining the domestic crown and becoming a European benchmark again, while completing the Espai Barça project, which will make the rebuilt Camp Nou the largest stadium in Europe. With one of the youngest squads on the continent and an academy as productive as ever, the club is betting more than ever on what has always made it distinctive: developing its own players, and having them play a football recognisable above all others.