Origins (1899-1922)

Origins (1899-1922)

Businessman Hans Gamper, born in Winterthur on 22 November 1877, was the man who decided to start a football club in Barcelona, by putting a note in a local sports magazine on 22nd October 1899, calling for players.

Gamper, known in Barcelona as Joan, had moved to the Catalan capital in 1898 for business reasons and just over a month after placing his ad, on 29th November 1899 he preside over the first club meting at the Gimnas Sole. Together with Gamper, Gualteri Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons attended that historic gathering. The meeting established the club and Englishman Gualteri Wild became the first President, combining his executive duties with his playing skills, since Wild, like the rest of the founders, was first and foremost a player.

The first kit

From the start, the players wore the famous blue and claret colours, half the shirt one colour and half the other with the sleeves the opposite colour and white shorts.

The first club coat of arms

At the beginning of its history the club shared the citys coat of arms, as a demonstration of its commitment to the city. Later, in 1910 the board decided that the club needed its own coat of arms and organized a competition to find the best design which was won by an anonymous member who produced the present model.

The first game

In their first ever match, Barca played a team made up of English expatriates in Bonanova (now known as Turo Park). The English team, which actually included a number of Barca players, won 1-0.

The first grounds

Barca's early search for a permanent home saw them playing at the Hotel Casanovas (1900), la carretera d'Horta (1901), el carrer Muntaner (1905) and carrer Indústria, which was the first ground owned by the club and had a capacity of 6,000 with a two tier stand, unique for its time.

The ground was officially opened on 14th March 19 1909, by which time the club had already begun to collect titles, having won the Copa Macaya in 1901-02 and the Catalan Championships of 1904-05 and 1908-09. Spurred on by their new surroundings, the club went on to win the Catalan Championships of 1909-10, 1910-11, 1912-13, 1915-16, 1918-19 1919-20, 1920-21 and 1921-22, and the Spanish Championships of 1909-10, 1911-12, 1912-13, 1919-20 and 1921-22, as they enjoyed their first big period of sporting and social expansion.









Founder, Joan Gamper

Born on the 22nd November 1877 in Winterthur, Switzerland, the young Hans Gamper was interested in following sports. He was already a keen on athletics, cycling and football and above all, had already founded FC Zurich. He arrived in Barcelona aged 20 and began mixing with others interested in sports; he began raising money for the foundation of Barça, with the principle interest in practising sport. He was a good player and in 1901 he scored 49 of the 88 goals scored by the team.
He was a player up until 1903 and in 1908 became president of the club for the first time in order to save the club from disappearing. Joan Gamper was to become president a total of five times in his time up until 1925. Gamper became fully integrated into Catalonia; both speaking and writing in Catalan. In 1925 he suffered the repression of the dictator of Primo de Rivera due to the dictator’s preference to Real Madrid. In 1930, Gamper again suffered a setback with his business and finally ended up committing suicide.

Barça ease into quarters (1-0)

Barça ease into quarters (1-0)

Jordi Clos

Barça were once again vastly superior to Celtic in part two of this Champions League second round encounter. An early goal from the home side made a comeback for the Hoops as good as impossible.

Barça never looked troubled as they sailed into the last eight of the Champions League. Xavi opened the scoring after just two minutes and that was as good as game over before it had barely started. Having already won 3-2 in Glasgow, Barça knew they would need to concede three goals to go out, and with Gordon Strachan’s side looking far less impressive away from Celtic Park, the 5,000 vociferous visiting supporters were left to sing their way through a game that even the most optimistic amongst them would have found it hard to believe they were ever going to win.

But the image of the night from a Barcelona point of view was Messi hobbling off in dismay with what looked like a serious hamstring injury. It was certainly the low point of the evening.

Great start

Barça were ready from the start. The only goal of the game came just two minutes into the action, with all of Barça’s main attacking players involved in a build up from wing to wing. Then from the edge of the area, Ronaldinho laid the ball on to Sylvinho, who fed it on to Xavi to beat Boruc with a subtle strike. Barça were one-up, and it was one-way traffic from then on.








Messi injured

The ball was in Scottish territory almost the whole time, with Rijkaard’s side enjoying almost embarrassingly continuous possession of the ball, with attack after attack breaking through the green and white midfield. Ronaldinho and Sylvinho were working well together, but Eto’o and Puyol both failed to beat Celtic’s Polish goalkeeper from clear-cut opportunities. Perhaps the lack of urgency was to blame, and then an aura of dismay fell over the side when they saw Messi limping off in tears with what could be another serious injury for the young Argentinian. As Henry came on as substitute, concern over Messi’s fate seemed to knock the spirit out of the home side.


Uneventful second half

There was very little to get excited about from then on. Celtic did try to push forward but came up with very little to endanger the Barcelona defence. Ronaldinho and Deco did find some work for Boruc to do as the half grew older, but as time pressed on, the crowd was just getting colder and colder. There was one moment that raised the temperature a little when Eto’o had a chance to score in the 72nd minute, but decided to pass the ball on to Henry instead, only for the ball to be intercepted by the Celtic defence.

Playing for time

Barcelona had no reason to panic, and were happy to just let the minutes tick by, having realised by now that Celtic were well contained. The Scots finally conjured up some spirit in the last few minutes as they threw caution to the wind in the hope of at least grabbing a draw on the night. Such positive thinking almost proved costly for them though, as two late strikes from Eto’o and Gudjohnsen could easily have made it two-nil. They didn't go in, and the final score of 1-0 is perhaps a poor reflection of a game in which Barça dominated the proceedings from start to finish

de foto lionel messi

lionel andres messi

Lionel Andrés Messi (born 24 June 1987 in Rosario) is an Argentine international footballerFC Barcelona in the Primera División, and for the Argentine national team. He has drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, and indeed Maradona himself named Messi his "successor".^[2] who currently plays for

Career

Beginnings

Lionel Messi was born in Santa Fe Province on 24 June 1987. At the age of five, he started playing football for Grandoli, a club coached by his father. In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys.^[3] At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.^[4] River Plate^{[citation needed]}Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, was made aware of Messi's talent, and Barcelona signed him after watching him play,^[5] offering to pay for the medical bills if he was willing to move to start a new life in Spain.^[3] His family moved with the young player to Europe and he starred in the club’s youth teams.^[5] showed interest in Messi's progress, but did not have enough money to pay for the treatment of the illness that cost over £500 a month, as Argentina's economy was collapsing.

FC Barcelona

Messi made his unofficial debut for the first team against FC Porto on 16 November 2003. Less than a year later he made his official debut against Espanyol on 16 October 2004, becoming the third-youngest player ever to play for FC Barcelona and youngest club player who played in La Liga (a record broken by team mate Bojan Krkić in September 2007).^[6] When he scored his first senior goal for the club against Albacete Balompié on 1 May 2005, Messi was 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old, becoming the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for FC Barcelona until 2007 when Bojan Krkić broke this record, a goal assisted by Messi.^[7]

lionel messi wallpaper

Argentina Under-20

In June 2004, he got his chance, playing in an under-20 friendly match against Paraguay. In 2005 he was part of the team that won the Under-20 World Cup in Holland. He also won the prize for best player of the tournament.

International career

On 4 August 2005, José Pekerman called Messi up to the senior Argentine national team. He made his debut on 17 August 2005 against Hungary, but it was a forgettable occasion. He was substituted on during the 63rd minute, but was sent off after just 40 seconds, because the referee Markus Merk found he had elbowed defender Vilmos Vanczák, who was tugging Messi's shirt, and left the pitch in tears. The decision was heavily contested as Maradona even claimed the decision was pre-meditated.^[8][9] Messi then had his first international start on 3 September in Argentina's 0-1 World Cup qualifier away loss against Paraguay playing the last eight minutes of the match.^[10] Ahead of the match he had said "This is a re-début. The first one was a bit short"^[11]

2005-06 season

On September 16, for the second time in three months, Barcelona announced an update to Messi's contract - this time improved to pay him as a first team member and extended till June 2014.^[3][12] Messi obtained Spanish citizenshipSeptember 25 and was finally able to make his début in the season's Spanish First Division. He had previously been unable to play because FC Barcelona had filled their quota of non-EUUEFA Champions League came on September 27 against Italian club Udinese.^[13] He impressed with some great passing and a seemingly telepathic relationship with Ronaldinho that earned him a standing ovation from the 70,000-odd Nou Camp faithful.^[14] In December of that year, the Italian newspaper Tuttosport awarded him the Golden Boy 2005 title for the best under-21 player in Europe, ahead of Wayne Rooney, Lukas Podolski, and Cristiano Ronaldo.^[15] on players. Messi's first home outing in the

Messi netted 6 goals from 17 league appearances and scored 1 Champions League goal from the 6 games he featured in. His reputation for big match temperament was helped by performances in Barcelona's important away leg victories against Real Madrid and Chelsea in the league and Champions League respectively, each considered his best of the respective campaign.^[16][5]second round Champions League tie against Chelsea.^[17] Barcelona ended the season as champions of Spain and Europe. Messi's season ended prematurely on 7 March 2006, when he tore a muscle in his right thigh during the second leg of the

The injury that kept him from playing for two months at the end of the 2005/06 season jeopardised his presence in the World Cup. Nevertheless, Messi was selected in the Argentina squad for the tournament on May 15 2006. He also played in the farewell match against the Argentinian U-20 team for fifteen minutes and a friendly against Angola from the 64th minute.^[18][19] He witnessed Argentina's opening match victory against Ivory Coast from the bench.^[20] In the next match against Serbia , Messi became the youngest player to represent Argentina at a World Cup when he came on as a substitute for Maxi Rodríguez in the 74th minute. He assisted Hernán Crespo's goal within minutes of entering the game and also scored the final goal in the 6-0 victory, that made him the youngest scorer in the tournament.^[21] Messi started in Argentina's following 0-0 tie against the Netherlands.^[22] In the following game against Mexico, Messi came on as a substitute in the 84th minute, with the score tied 1-1. He appeared to score a goal, but was ruled offside in a dubious decision^[23][24], Argentina needing an extra time winner to proceed. Messi sat on bench during the quarter-finals match against Germany, which Argentina lost in a penalty shootout.^[25]

lionel messi photo

2006-07 season

Consistently strong performances and the occasional goal meant Messi was not starting any more games on the bench. Failure to effectively replace the injured Eto'o and poor defensive displays prevented Barcelona from taking advantage of Messi's showings against Chelsea and Real Madrid^[26]. This would later prove critical to their title challenges. On November 12, in the game against Real Zaragoza, Messi suffered a broken metatarsal from tackles, ruling him out for 3 months^[27][28]. Barça carried out his recuperation in native Argentina. During this period there were rumours of interest in the player from Inter Milan^[29][30]. Messi returned to action against Racing Santander on the 11th of February, coming on as a second-half substitute[4]. Rijkaard carefully managed his complete return, gradually increasing playing minutes with each game. One month since his return, on the 10th of March, he played his first full league match since the injury, Real Madrid being the opposition. Once again, El Clásico saw Messi in top form, scoring a hat-trick to earn 10-man Barcelona a 3-3 draw, equalising thrice and with the final goal coming in injury time. In doing so he became the first player since Iván Zamorano (for Real Madrid in the 1994-95 season) and the first Barcelona player since Romario(1993-94 season) to hit a hat-trick in the El Clásico. Messi is also the youngest player ever to have scored in this fixture. The game also marked the beginning of Messi's best spell of form with Barça. He also began finding the net more often, 11 of his 14 league goals for the season coming from the last 13 games. Despite his spirited efforts, Barcelona felt marginally short in its defence of the La Liga title, Real Madrid winning on a better head-to-head record.

Messi also proved the 'new Maradona' tag was not all hype, by near-replicating both of Maradona's most famous goals (the two against England in the 1986 World Cup) in the space of the single season^[31]. On April 18, 2007, he scored two goals during a Copa del Rey semi-final against Getafe CF, one of which was very similar to Maradona's famous goal against England at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, known as the Goal of the Century.^[32]. The world's sports press exploded with Maradona comparisons, and the Spanish press labelled Messi as "Messidona". He ran about the same distance (62 metres), beat the same number of players (six, including the goalkeeper), scored from a very similar position, and ran towards the corner flag just as Maradona did in Mexico 21 years before. In a press conference after the game, Messi's team-mate Deco said: "There's no other like Leo"^[33]. Later on, in a crucial league match with Espanyol, Messi scored a goal that drew even more comparisons to Maradona's Hand of God goal.

Copa America 2007

Messi played his first game in Copa America on 29 June, 2007, when Argentina defeated United States 4-1 in the first game. In this game, Messi showed his capabilities as a playmaker. He set up a goal for fellow striker Hernán Crespo and had numerous shots on target. Tevez came on as a substitute for Messi in the 79th minute and scored minutes later.

His second game was against Colombia, in which he caused a penalty that Crespo converted to tie the game at 1-1. He also played part in Argentina's second goal as he was fouled outside the box, which allowed Juan Roman Riquelme to score from a freekick, and increase Argentina's lead to 3-1. The final score of the game was 4-2 in Argentina's favor and guaranteed them a spot in the tournament's quarterfinals.

In the third game, against Paraguay the coach rested Messi having already qualified for the quarter-finals. He came off the bench in place of Esteban Cambiasso in the 64th minute, with 0-0. In the 79th minute he created a goal for Javier Mascherano. In the quarterfinals, as Argentina faced Peru, Riquelme made a pass to Messi and the latter scored the second goal for Argentina, which advanced to the semifinals after a 4-0 win.

In the semi finals against Mexico, Messi scored when he spotted the Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez off of his line and chipped the ball into the goal. The goal ultimately helped his team to a 3-0 victory and earned them a place in the final against Brazil, which Argentina subsequently lost 3-0.

lionel messi picture

2007-08 season

Messi scored 5 goals in a week leading Barcelona to the top four in La Liga. He dedicated the two goals he scored against FC Sevilla on September 22 to Ronaldinho, who was injured and under fire from media outlets at the time. A few days earlier he had scored as Barcelona defeated Lyon 3-0 at home in a Champions League match and then on September 26, Messi scored another goal in a 4-1 victory over Real Zaragoza.

He has been nominated for a FIFPro World XI Player Award under the category of Forward. A recent poll conducted in the online edition of the Spanish newspaper Marca has him as the current best player of the world with 77% of the votes.^[34] Also, other columnists from Barcelona-based newspapers El Mundo Deportivo and Sport began asking for the Ballon d'Or to be given to Leo Messi this year. Some Spanish sport journalists have started to point out that if Messi keeps playing at this level, he could become one of the greatest of all time like Maradona or Pele. This observation was also made by world soccer legends Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff.^[35] Various soccer personalities such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Frank Rijkaard, Víctor Fernández, Bernd Schuster,Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Totti and Diego Maradona have all, at one time or another, declared that they consider Messi to be the current best footballer of the world.^[36][37]

On February 27 Messi played in his 100th official match for FC Barcelona.

Lionel Messi

FC