Barcelona and Footballs most famous announcement

Barcelona. Think Messi, Ronaldinho, Cryuff,  Zubizarreta and Luis Suárez to name a few. Indeed this whole post could be used just to name the great players who have played for Barça.

What about Joan Gamper? Formally Hans Kamper before he decided to become more ‘Catalonian.’ He might not have been the greatest ever player  but he has a attribute that will eclipse anything

achieved by anyone who has ever worn the red and blue strips; he founded the club. A small newspaper advertisement has become perhaps the most famous announcement in the clubs football history, for it was from these humble beginnings that the mighty Barcelona was born. When you think of the club now with its rich history, both on the field and off it, it is humbling to see how such a great entity came about. While Barcelona are forever tied to Catalonia especially after the Franco years – “Més que un club” – it was infact a Swiss Businessman who founded the almost all-engulfing phenomenon that is Barcelona.

Sports Notices
Our friend and companion Hans Kamper… former Swiss [football] champion, being keen on organising some football games in the city asks anyone who feels enthusiastic enough about the sport to present themselves at the offices of this newspaper any Tuesday or Friday evening between the hours of 9 and 11 pm.

Joan Gamper would go on to be in the Barcelona team that won their first trophy in the form of the Copa Macaya in 1901 and spent 25 years as the Clubs President.  It is sad fact that his life ended so depressingly – suicide – but this we should not dwell on for the Swiss businessman founded something that has become renouned for being Catalonian. Indeed Gamper himself was expelled from Spain by the Primo de Rivera dictatorship after being accused of promoting Catalonian Nationalism. For someone who changed his name to blend in with his adopted homeland this act just confirmed Gamper’s credentials.

So next time you watch Barcelona lifting another major trophy, and I doubt we will have to wait long, think back to how it all began; 8 lines in a newspaper. 8 lines that changed football forever.