#5 Their rivalry with Real Madrid is probably the biggest in the game
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Okay, so every country has bitter rivalries in football – Scotland has the Glasgow derby, Italy has the Milan derby, England has Manchester United vs. Liverpool, and so on. But nothing really comes close to the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose individual games against one another have become known as El Clasico.
Where does the rivalry come from? Well, not only are Madrid and Barcelona the two biggest cities in Spain, but the clubs also identify with opposing political positions too – Barcelona with Catalonian independence, and Madrid with Spanish nationalism. That’s enough for a really tasty rivalry in itself, but the history between the two clubs runs a lot deeper than that.
For instance, there’s the controversial transfer back in the 1950s of Alfredo di Stefano – both clubs claimed to hold his registration and the whole issue required FIFA to step in, and although the ruling was that the player was to represent both sides in alternate seasons, Barca eventually gave up and he led Madrid to a lot of success. More recently of course, Luis Figo notoriously made the move from Barca to Real – and became despised by the Barca fans in the process.
In terms of results, Real lead Barca when it comes to competitive matches – they have 93 wins to Barca’s 91 – but in overall matches it’s Barcelona in the lead with 110 wins to Real’s 97. But needless to say, despite all the bitter hatred between the two, the rivalry drives both sides on to even more greatness, which is why it’s so important to the identity of both sides.
El Clasico is the world’s most famous football game, giving us another reason for Barcelona’s worldwide fame.
