From a newspaper ad to global powerhouse
Walk through Barcelona on match day and you'll feel it. The streets hum, blaugrana scarves hang from balconies, and people who have never kicked a ball argue over whether Xavi would have found space against that defence. This is what FC Barcelona means to Catalonia.
The motto, "MĂ©s que un club" (More than a club), gets used a lot, but spend any time here and it doesn't feel like marketing. It all began on 29 November 1899, when a Swiss footballer named Joan Gamper placed an advert in a local newspaper looking for players. A small group answered. Nobody in that room had any idea what they were starting.
Gamper wasn't trying to build an empire. He had fallen for the city, wanted a game and needed teammates. The founders were a mixed bunch of Swiss, British and Catalan enthusiasts, and they settled on blue and claret, the colours that now define the club. The nickname came later: "Cules". A popular story says the fans at the old Les Corts ground sat along the wall with their backs to the street, so passers-by saw rows of bottoms (cul in Catalan). Whether or not that's true, the name stuck and became a badge of pride.
The first La Liga title arrived in 1929, but for decades Barcelona were a successful club rather than a revolutionary one. That changed when a skinny Dutchman walked through the door.
