FC Barcelona- more than a club

FC Barcelona has grown spectacularly in every area and has progressed into something much greater than a mere sports club, turning Barça’s ‘more than a club’ slogan into a reality. The FC Barcelona is  one of the best club in the history of football.The club now has the best squads including Leonel Messi among with Xavi, Iniesta, Fabrigas,Eric Abidal, Sanchez and lot more. 

On November 29, 1899, Hans Gamper founded Futbol Club Barcelona, along with eleven other enthusiasts of football, a game that was still largely unknown in this part of the world.Since its foundation the club has played with a crest. The club's original crest was a quartered diamond-shaped crest topped by the Crown of Aragon and the bat of King James, and surrounded by two branches, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm. In 1910 the club held a competition among its members to design a new crest. The winner was Carles Comamala, who at the time played for the club. Comamala's suggestion became the crest that the club wears today, with some minor variations. The crest consists of the St George Cross in the upper-left corner with the Catalan flag beside it, and the team colours at the bottom. 

The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900.Several competing theories have been put forth for the blue and red design of the Barcelona shirt. The son of the first president, Arthur Witty, claimed it was the idea of his father as the colours were the same as the Merchant Taylor's School team. Another explanation, according to author Toni Strubell, is that the colours are from Robespierre's First Republic. In Catalonia the common perception is that the colours were chosen by Joan Gamper and are those of his home team, FC Basel

Since its founding, Barcelona has never worn corporate advertisements on their shirt. On 14 July 2006, the club announced a five year agreement with UNICEF, which includes having the UNICEF logo on their shirts. The agreement has the club donate €1.5 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 percent of its ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target, cf. ODA) via the FC Barcelona Foundation.The FC Barcelona Foundation is an entity set up in 1994 on the suggestion of then-chairman of the Economical-Statutory Committee, Jaime Gil-Aluja. The idea was to set up a foundation that could attract financial Since its founding, Barcelona has never worn corporate advertisements on their shirt. On 14 July 2006, the club announced a five year agreement with UNICEF, which includes having the UNICEF logo on their shirts. The agreement has the club donate €1.5 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 percent of its ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target, cf. ODA) via the FC Barcelona Foundation.The FC Barcelona Foundation is an entity set up in 1994 on the suggestion of then-chairman of the Economical-Statutory Committee, Jaime Gil-Aluja. The idea was to set up a foundation that could attract financial 

Barcelona is the only European club to have played continental football every season since 1955, and one of the only three clubs to have never been relegated from La Liga, along with Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid. In 2009, Barcelona became the first club in Spain to win the treble consisting of La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. That same year, it also became the first football club ever to win six out of six competitions in a single year, thus completing the sextuple, comprising the aforementioned treble and the Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cupand FIFA Club World Cup

 Current Squad

      

     Current technical staff

Josep Guadiola 

Manager, FC Barcelona

           Management

             Sandro Rossel

              President, FCBarcelona

'Cristiano Ronaldo '- The Ultimate hero of world football

 Cristiano Ronaldo has been described as a skillful winger who will take on any defender with his dribbling and pace; and who possesses a powerful, accurate free-kick and crossing ability. Ronaldo is able to score with his head and feet. 
Cristiano Ronaldo is the most expensive player in football history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid in a transfer deal worth 80 million pounds.

Ronaldo spent his early years playing for his local team, Nacional, and by the time he turned 12 years old, he already made his name for himself as one of Madeira's top soccer player. It wasn't long before he started to catch the attention of other big Portuguese clubs. Among them were Porto and Boavista, however he eventually chose to play for Sporting which was a team he followed while growing up.Ronaldo caught the attention of Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. Ronaldo earned his first cap for Portugal in 2003 and became Manchester United's first-ever Portuguese player when he for them after the 2002–03 season. 

Strengths: Ronaldo will take on any defender with searing pace, and mesmerising footwork to boot. His ability to beat a player and whip in crosses makes him a feared opponent. Add to that the way his free-kicks swerve with pace and power and this winger would be an asset to any team, past and present.

Weaknesses: Goes to ground far too easily which attracts the ire of supporters and sometimes tries a trick when a simple pass would do.

Career high: Winning the Champions League with Manchester United in 2008, and subsequently being named FIFA's World Player of the Year.

Career low: Losing to Greece in the final of Euro 2004 on home turf. His tears were caught on camera for all to see.

Style: Fast, tricky, strong, a mesmeric dribbler.

Quotes: "I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. He is better than Kaka and better than Messi. He is streets ahead of them all. His contribution as a goal threat is unbelievable. His stats are incredible. Strikes at goal, attempts on goal, raids into the penalty box, headers. It is all there. Absolutely astounding." Sir Alex Ferguson, July 2009.

Trivia: Cristiano's name Ronaldo came from his father's favorite actor, 

Ronald Reagan.

           Profile of Cristiano Ronaldo

 

"Lionel Messi" -The little magician of world football

Lionel Messi is regarded as one of the best football players of his generation, Messi received several Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21, and won in 2009 ,2010 and 2011. His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi as his "successor".

Messi has won five La Liga titles, three Champions League titles, scoring in two of those finals, against Manchester United in both 2009 and 2011. He was not on the pitch as Barcelona defeated Arsenal in 2006, but received a winners' medal from the tournament. After scoring 12 goals in the 2010–11 Champions League, Messi became only the third player (after Gerd Müller and Jean-Pierre Papin) to top-score in three successive European Champion Clubs' Cup campaigns. However, Messi is the first one to win the Champions League top scorer titles for three consecutive years after Champions League changed its format in 1992.
Messi was the top scorer of the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship with six goals, including two in the final game. Shortly thereafter, he became an established member of Argentina's senior international team. In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América tournament the following year. In 2008, in Beijing, he won his first international honour, an Olympic gold medal, with the Argentina Olympic football team. At international level Messi has scored 18 goals in 64 games.

His first championship would come in the Liga season of 2004-05. Since then, and playing a more prominent role every season, he has won every major club trophy at Camp Nou - including a stunning haul of six in 2008-09 - and claimed the World Player of the Year award three times in three years, leaving many in little doubt as to the fact that Messi is the best player of his generation; possibly of all-time.

Strengths: His ball skills are second to none, his runs from midfield are usually lethal and he is almost impossible to tackle when he gets his head down. His balance when running at speed is incredible.  

Weaknesses: Too often he searches for a way to finish moves by himself without looking for team-mates in a better position to shoot at goal.  

Career high: Winning the 2009, 2010 and 2011 World Player of the Year awards.
  
Career low: He was unable to perform to his best in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Argentina were eliminated in the quarter-finals with Messi looking on from the bench. Style: Quick, incisive, balanced, a stylish runner with the ball.

 Quotes: "Messi is my Maradona," said Maradona himself, as the head coach of the Argentine national team.

 Trivia: His debut with the national team (against Hungary) was a disaster: he entered the game in the 18th minute of the second half, and 47 seconds later was sent off.

          Profile of Leonel Messi 

                                                                                                                                  

English Premier League

Spanish La Liga

Spanish La Liga is currently the second strongest league in Europe according to UEFA's league coefficient. La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 28,286 for league matches in the 2009–10 season. This is the sixth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world and the third highest of any professional association football league, behind the German Bundesliga and English Premier League.The Primera División (First Division) of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), commonly known outside Spain as La Liga (pronounced: [la ˈliɣa], The League) or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA (BBVA League) since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. It is contested by twenty teams, with the three lowest placed teams relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top three teams in that division. A total of 59 teams have competed in La Liga, nine of which have been crowned champions. Since the 1950s,

Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the championship. Real Madrid have won the title a record thirty-one times while the Barcelona have won it on twenty-one occasions. However, during the 1930s and 1940s and in the last two decades, La Liga has seen other champions including Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Real Betis and Sevilla . Barcelona have currently won the last three seasons of La Liga.The top teams in La Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League,
with the first, second, and third placed teams directly entering the group stage and the fourth placed team entering the playoff. The fifth and sixth placed teams qualify for the first round of the UEFA Europa League.