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Futbol Club Barcelona, more commonly known simply as Barcelona, are one of the oldest football clubs in Europe with a history dating back to the 19th century. Along with Real Madrid, they are one of the two most successful clubs in Europe's top-five football leagues.
With a rich haul of 91 trophies in their cabinet, the same as that of their arch-rivals Real Madrid, Barcelona have won 26 La Liga, 30 Copa Del Rey and five Champions League titles among a slew of other domestic and continental honours.
Ten interesting facts about FC Barcelona
The club, founded in 1899, has often been seen as a symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism, especially during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which explains the motto of Barcelona: mes que un club (more than just a club).
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Some of the best players of the world like Johan Cryuff, Diego Maradona, Ronaldo Nazario, Luis Figo, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta have donned the famed Blaugrana jersey of Barcelona. Let us have a look at ten interesting facts about FC Barcelona.
#1 Mes que un club
True to their motto, Barcelona have been more than a club in ways more than one.
Barcelona, one of the last clubs from the top five leagues to don a sponsor's name on their jersey, have a long-standing association with UNICEF, the United Nations agency responsible for the health and development of children worldwide.
The La Liga giants, through their partnership with UNICEF, have built 16000 schools in many developing and underdeveloped countries around the world where sports has been used as a medium to provide over 1.5 million children access to quality education and protect them from deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Besides their support of social causes, Barcelona also promote five other professional sports, including women's sport.
#2 Barcelona's Camp Nou is the largest football stadium in Europe
Barcelona's imposing Camp Nou amphitheatre, opened in 1957, is one of the largest sports stadiums in the world.
Designed by architects Francesc Mitjans Miro and Josep Soteras Mauri, the Camp Nou, which translates to new ground, was a significant upgrade on Barcelona's old Les Corts ground that could house only 48,000 spectators.
Originally intended to be named as the Estadi del FC Barcelona, the 'Camp Nou' name became more popular, and Barcelona adopted it as the official name of their home ground in 2000-01.
With a capacity to seat 99,354 spectators, the Camp Nou is Europe's largest sporting arena and is one of a few football stadiums across the continent to fulfill UEFA's stringent Category 4 stadium regulations with regards to facilities, services and capacity.
Barcelona's Camp Nou has hosted some of the most memorable games in the history of the club and also hosted the opening ceremony of the 1982 FIFA World Cup and the first game of that competition.
#3 Barcelona are the richest football club in the world
In 2019-20, Barcelona became the first football club to breach the £700 million ($900 million/€800 million) threshold as they overtook arch-rivals Real Madrid to become the richest football team in the world.
With Los Blancos raking in $864 million in revenue during the same period, Barcelona's revenue earnings of $959.3 million (£741 million) represented a $95 million gap between two of Spain's biggest football teams.
While Madrid's revenue fell from $896 million the previous year, Barcelona's rose from $823 million during the same period, according to Deloitte.
Broadcast contributed the largest chunk of Barcelona's revenue during this period, while about 40% revenue came from commerical deals and 16% from matchdays.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic eating into Barcelona's matchday earnings, especially during the latter half of last season, the club immensely benefitted by adapting the best to the changing market conditions.
“Barca is a clear example of a club adapting to changing market conditions, reducing the reliance on broadcast revenue and focussing on growing revenues within its control,” said Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
With the club expected to bolster their commercial revenue in the foreseeable future, Barcelona are well on course to retaining their numero uno status and becoming the first $1 billion football club.
“With the club expecting further growth in commercial revenues, we expect them to retain the top spot in next year’s edition, and Barca is on course to be the first $1 billion Money League club in years to come,” Jones added.
#4 Barcelona are the second-most supported football team in the world
With the arrival of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho in the early 2000s, Barcelona experienced a surge in their global fan base.
The arrival of a certain Lionel Messi coincided with the club's most prolific period in their illustrious history. Under the tutelage of former player Pep Guardiola, Barcelona became the first Spanish team to win the continental treble in 2008-09 as the Catalan club became the dominant team in Spain and abroad.
Barcelona currently have over 259 million followers across various social media platforms, with Facebook and Instagram accounting for more than 200 million. That makes Barcelona the football club with the second-highest social media following, narrowly overtaken by Real Madrid who have over 262 million.
If Barcelona can get back to winning ways this campaign after their first trophyless season in 12 years, it may not be too long before they overtake their arch rivals and become the most followed football team in the world.
#5 Barcelona are the first sports team with an annual first-team pay of more than £10 million
Barcelona are one of the biggest football clubs in the world, both on and off the pitch. Led by their inspirational captain, Lionel Messi, the club also have one of the highest wage bills in the world.
According to the latest global Sports Salary Survey, Barcelona are the first sports team in the world to have an average first-team pay of over £10 million (€11.3 million).
Last season, Barcelona had an average annual player salary of $12.28 million, with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann the three highest earners. Messi, in particular, earns around $35 million a year, which translates to roughly $646,000 (€540,000) a week, making him one of the highest earners in the sport from wages alone.
#6 Barcelona are the first team to win the continental treble on multiple occasions
Six years after becoming the first Spanish team to win the continental treble in 2008-09, Barcelona won their third Champions League title in six years to become the first team in history to win the coveted treble on multiple occasions.
Five years later, in a COVID-19-ravaged season, Bavarian giants Bayern Munich won the continental treble for the second time in their history to emulate Barcelona as the only teams to win the domestic league, league cup and European Cup in the same season on more than one occasion.
#7 Barcelona have the most Ballon d'Or wins than any other club
Breaking a tie with Cristiano Ronaldo, last year Lionel Messi won a record sixth Ballon d'or award to cap off a wonderful season for Barcelona.
In the process, Barcelona overtook Real Madrid as the club with the most Ballon d'Or wins. The Catalan club now have 12 Ballon d'Or wins, with Lionel Messi alone accounting for half of that tally and five different players accounting for the six other wins.
Barcelona's talismanic captain is the only player in history to win the coveted honour in four consecutive years, doing so from 2009 to 2012. Messi won his fifth Ballon d'Or award in 2015.
The diminutive Argentinian is also the only player to win more than four Ballon d'Or awards for the same club, doing so for Barcelona - the only club he has played for during his illustrious career.
#8 Barcelona have never been relegated from the La Liga
Along with Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona are the only other club never to have been relegated from the La Liga during the competition's nine-decade long existence.
Not surprisingly, the 26-time La Liga winners have a slew of records in the competition. One of only two clubs to have breached the 100-point mark in a La Liga season, Barcelona, have the longest unbeaten run (43 games) and longest unbeaten away run in the history of the Spanish top flight.
Barcelona's inspirational captain Lionel Messi has the most goals (444) and the most assists (201) by any player in La Liga history. The diminutive Argentinian, who scored a staggering 50 league goals in 2011-12, made a Liga-high 21 assists last season in an otherwise dismal campaign for Barcelona.
#9 Barcelona are the only club in Champions League history to successfully overhaul a 4-goal first-leg deficit
Trailing Paris St. Germain 0-4 going into their second-leg Round of 16 clash against the French champions in the 2016-17 Champions League, Barcelona had it all to do.
Never in the history of the competition had any club successfully overturned a four-goal deficit. Barcelona, undaunted by the overwhelming odds, began on a bright note as they halved the arrears by half-time.
Barcelona managed to make it 3-0 on the night, courtesy Lionel Messi's penalty. However, when Edinson Cavani scored what looked like a precious away goal for the visitors, Barcelona needed to score three unanswered goals in little less than half an hour to avoid an early exit.
With a capacity Camp Nou egging their team on, Barcelona scored their fourth of the night in the 88th minute but still needed two more goals to advance. Pouring forward in numbers, the Blaugrana scored twice in injury time to complete the most stunning of comebacks in the Champions League.
Camp Nou erupted in jubilation as PSG looked shellshocked at what hit them. Barcelona had just become the first team in the Champions League to overhaul a four-goal first-leg deficit.
#10 Barcelona are the only club to win six trophies in a calendar year
In a year when Barcelona became the first Spanish team in history to win the continental treble, the Blaugrana started the 2009-10 season by winning the UEFA Super Cup and the Supercopa de Espana to make it five wins in as many competitions in the year.
The year was to get better still for Pep Guardiola's men, though. Barcelona entered the Club World Cup as the overwhelming favourites to win the competition but trailed Argentine club Estudiantes with one minute of regulation time remaining in the final.
In entered supersub Pedro into the party as Barcelona drew parity to force extra time. Lionel Messi then capped off the greatest year by a team in club football when he slotted in from close range to win Barcelona a record sixth title of the year.
A decade later, no team has come close to emulating this feat of Barcelona who remain the only club to win the calendar-year sextuple.
