Football News: By The Numbers: Barcelona

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By The Numbers - Part 2: Barcelona

1992 The year of Barca's first ever European Cup triumph, at Wembley Stadium. Cruyff's Dream Team made Catalan dreams come true with this victory.

2011 Barcelona managed to lift the European Cup for a second time at Wembley Stadium, this time the new Wembley. While no longer managed by Cruyff, it was his number one disciple, Pep Guardiola, who followed in his mentor's footsteps.

2 Considered the predecessor of European club tournaments, the Latin Cup was played between 1949 and 1957. It was competed for between club sides from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy and Barca won it twice to be the joint most successful team.

4 Ahead of World War 1, the Pyrenees Cup was a tournament for Spanish and French teams based in the territories of the Pyrenees. Catalonia, Basque Country, Languedoc, Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine were the territories involved and it was won by Barcelona every year except for the final event in 1914, where they failed to even reach the final despite it being hosted in the city.

1910 Barcelona's first Copa del Rey (King's Cup) was won in this year.

4 Another trophy in their extensive collection is the European Cup Winners Cup. No longer in existance but they managed to lift it 4 times while it was.

13 The most successful club in the Supercopa de Espana (Spanish Super Cup) is Barcelona with 13 wins since its creation in 1982.

2 Despite all their success down the years in other trophies, when it comes to the Spanish League Cup, Barcelona have won it just twice. Both times in the 1980s.

1937 The Mediterranean League was a one-off competition played in the Republican area of Spain during the Spanish Civil War which Barca won.

5 Barca are one of the more successful clubs in European competition with 5 European Cups to their name. Only Real Madrid, AC Milan and Liverpool have won more, with Bayern Munich also having 5 trophies.

23 Before La Liga was created in 1929 each region had their own championship. The Catalan region continued to hold their championship right up until 1940, though the 1938-39 season was cancelled due to the Spanish Civil War. Barca won the competition for the first time in 1902 under the name of 'Macaya Cup' and for the final time right before the civil war in 1938 to make 23 in total.

3 Barcelona are the most successful club in the history of the Eva Duarte Cup, a short-lived tournament played between the winner of La Liga and Copa del Generalisimo/Copa del Rey. The competition, which was a tribute to the Argentine dictator Juan Peron and his wife Eva Peron, preceded the Spanish Super Cup. Two of Barca's three trophies in this competition were awarded without a match taking place after the Catalans won both La Liga and Copa del Rey in 1952 and 1953.

14 Pep Guardiola won 14 trophies in his 4 years in charge of the Catalans. Pep won three league titles, two Champions League, two Copa del Rey, three Spanish Super Cups, two European Super Cups and two FIFA World Club Cups. That is 3 more trophies than even the legendary Johan Cruyff.

5 the club has teams in 5 different sports, football, basketball, futsal, roller hockey and handball.

2015 The club's final, so far, European Cup was lifted in Berlin this year. They have not really looked likely to win it again since then either.

1899 A group of footballers from England, Catalan, Spain and Switzerland founded Barca in this year. It has since become a symbol of Catalan culture, but started out very differently. Hans Gamper (now known as Joan Gamper) it was who placed an advert in 'Los Deportes' looking for help to form a football club on 22 October 1899.

5 When Barcelona win a European competition to qualify for the European Super Cup, they generally win it. They have managed to add five of these trophies so far.

74 So far FC Barcelona have won 74 domestic trophies.

26 La Liga has found its way to Barcelona many times now, though they are not the most successful team in La Liga.

2 Running since 2014 and pitting the two highest ranked Catalan La Liga clubs against each other, Barca have won the Catalan Super Cup twice.

30 Barca have been even more successful in the Copa del Rey than the league.

16 Two debutants for Barcelona have been aged just 16, Vicente Martinez, way back in 1941, and Ansu Fati in 2019.

3 Barca have always taken the Club World Cup seriously, winning it three times in 4 attempts as a result.

130 That is how many millions Barcelona paid for record signing Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool in January 2018. Though that figure does not take into account payments that will no longer need to be made after Coutinho failed to force a regular spot in the Barca side.

8 Catalan Cups sit in the Barca trophy cabinet.

2009 Rome was the scene of Barcelona's fourth European Cup win. Pep and Messi proved a lethal combination for all who had to face them.

200 The world record fee Barcelona received for Neymar Jr., though not technically a transfer fee, was £200m. That was the amount paid to buy him out of his contract so that the Brazilian cry baby could take his circus act over to Paris Saint-Germain. The oddity is that Barca have been trying to get him to come back ever since. You would think they would take the money and run!

1949 Barcelona won the inaugural Latin Cup in this year. The short-lived trophy was scrapped two years after the creation of the European Cup.

2006 It took a while before Barcelona managed to lift a second European Cup. So long that it had changed its name to the Champions League by the time they won it in Paris.

3 Barcelona managed to win the Fairs Cup on 3 occasions. The competition is often considered the forerunner of the UEFA Cup, though it was not organised or recognised by UEFA.

144,500 Barcelona claimed to have that many members (socios) involved with the club. Socios are more than fans, getting to vote on issues such as club president and so influence the direction the club takes.

99,354 The capacity of Barcelona's vast bowl-like stadium Camp Nou. Just 20,000 of those seats have any kind of covering to protect from inclement weather, though that is not often an issue.

767 Xavi holds the club record for most appearances with 767 as he helped the Catalans to dominate European football for an extended period. The diminutive midfielder was very nearly discarded from the club's famous La Masia youth academy due to being too small. La Masia now has a number of reminders for the staff that size should not be used to judge young players.

2009 This was the year that Barca became the first Spanish side to do the treble of Spanish Cup, La Liga and Champions League.

2015 The Catalans got their second treble of Spanish Cup, La Liga and Champions League in 2015.

3 Barca have broken the world record on transfer fees three times when they splashed out on Johan Cruyff in 1973, Diego Maradona in 1982 and the Ronaldo in 1996.

633 Lionel Messi is Barcelona's record goalscorer with 633 goals in 729 games.

9 Joan Gamper managed to score 9 goals in a single match on three separate occasions for Barca between 1901 and 1903.

Written by Tris Burke August 14 2020 08:44:09