Despite the family tree of our illustrious opponent, this Barcelona match is profitable

Our opponent on Thursday evening is one of the most famous club sides in the world, fans of Newcastle United Will will of course remember a lot of pleasure that Tino Asprilla inspired 3-2 victory against the Catalans in September 1997, the Colombian scoring a hat trick in St James Park.

Since that raw evening we have played FC Barcelona three times (at home and away), all in the UEFA Champions League, which lost every time.

Generally known as FC Barcelona and popularly Barca, the club was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, Catalan, German and English football players led by Joan Gamper.

More than a century and a quarter later they can boast a trophy pull with 28 LA Liga titles, 32 Copa del Reys, five European champions competitions, a record four European Cup winners, a record three intercities-grant Cups and three FIFA Club World Cups.

It is the supporters who have FC Barcelona, ​​a model that Gamper founded as president during his reign, where membership increases to more than 20,000 in 1922.

It was during his young years that the club changed its official language from Castilian to Catalan and gradually evolved into an important symbol of Catalan identity. For many fans, participation in the club had less to do with the game itself and more to be part of the collective identity of the club, hence the motto “Més Que Un Club” (“More than a club”).

In the 1930s, both the city and the football club were enormously hit by the Spanish Civil War. While the city was subjected to aerial bombing and occupation, various players from Barcelona were hired in the ranks of those who fought against the military rebellion, while others sought asylum when the club participated in a tour through Mexico and the US in the summer of 1937.

As a result, the FC Barcelona fortune decreased, although it won the Mediterranean League in 1937 with the suspension of La Liga because of the war, in which the city rivals RCD Espanyol are demolished to a title that is still being disputed, the Royal Spanish Football Federation to the day of Liga.

The occupation of Catalonia led to various limitations, with all the signs of regional nationalism, including language, flag and other signs of separatism forbidden, and the club was forbidden to use non-Spanish names, forcing the club to change his name in Club De Fútbol Barcelona and to remove the Catalan flag from De Krist.

Despite this extremely difficult era, CF Barcelona enjoyed good success in the 1940s and 1950s, in which he won La Liga for the first time since 1929, before winning back-to-back titles in 1948 and 1949, 1952 and 1953 and 1959 and 1960. It was also that Copa delys in this period.

The sixties were less successful because Real Madrid La Liga monopolized and the completion of Camp Nou meant that the club had little money to spend on new players, although three European titles in the form of the Fairs Cup were won.

In 1968, six years before the end of the dictatorship of Spain, coached by Salvador Artigas, a former Republican pilot in the civil war, CF Barcelona won the Copa del Generalísimo in the Santiago Bernabéu with General Franco.

The end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1974, saw the club change its official name to Futbol Club Barcelona before he also returned the club comb to its original design, including the original letters.

In the modern era, the club can boast some of the most recognisable players on the planet, from Johan Cruyff who was bought for a then world record £920,000 from Ajax in 1973, to the likes of Diego Maradona – another world record signing in 1982, who cost £5 million from Boca Juniors, as well As the Brazilian Quartet of Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.

In general, only two La Liga titles were won in the 1970s and 1980s, this was a rather unobtrusive period for such a remarkable club, although Barcelona came in 1985 after winning La Liga in 1985 the following season in the course of the European Cup in the following season, a penalty shit against the Romanian, nae -na -nae -ine Sevile, Barcelona Complay to Somshow Miss All Four of Her Penalt Sevile, Barcelona Complay to Somshow.

In the small European competition, the cup winners Cup, Barcelona Success enjoyed 1979, 1982 and 1989. By the time they won this competition for a record fourth time, it was of course former Newcastle United -manager Sir Bobby Robson who was on the Catal’s Catal in 1997, of course, former Newcastle United, Manager Sir Bobby Robson stood by the Catal’s Catalans For Nil.

Barcelona eventually managed to land the European Cup in 1992, when Ronald Koeman’s free kick established things against the Italian side Sampdoria in Wembley.

Since then they have succeeded in lifting the prestigious trophy at four times, in 2006, when they defeated Arsenal in Paris, in 2009 and 2011 when they defeated Manchester United in Wembley and in Rome and then in 2015 in Berlin, when they dismissed Juventus.

The first two victories came under the steward of the new President Joan Laporta, while the two victories came to the Manchester Club in the time that Pep Guardiola, now manager of Manchester City, was in charge of Camp Nou.

Not much will claim that Lionel Messi was the undisputed star of the show, but those who will point to Guardiola’s team with an abundance of talent, of which a considerable part of home was. In 2010, when Spain won the World Cup against Holland for the first time, no fewer than seven players who graduated from the Barcelona Academy took the final, of whom there were six current Barcelona players, where Andres Iniesta scored the winning goal.

Lionel Messi is perhaps the most prominent of all FC Barcelona players, the Argentinian scored a remarkable 672 goals for the club in 778 performances.

While the rivals ‘El Classico’ Real Madrid the Champions League have won five times since the last triumph of Barcelona in 2015, Barcelona has since overshadowed Real’s La Liga titles of La Liga, and won five times that the fourth Success -Rivals -Rivals Espanyol have won.

This newest title was under the stewardship of Laporta, whose second reign started as president in 2021, but merged with the Catalans who have difficulty meet the financial fair play requirements of La Liga. This led to the sale of Messi to PSG together with the imposition of transfer restrictions, although the acquisition of talent such as Robert Lewandowski from Bayern, Raphinha from Leeds and Dani Olmo from Leipzig was still possible in recent years.

While FC Barcelona is going to St James Park this week, they almost certainly do this without their latest miraculous talent, Lamine Yamal and for me, while it would have been great to see him in action on Thursday, if he misses, it can only stimulate the opportunities of Newcastle United.

While Nick Woltemade appeared a debut on Saturday with the winning goal against Wolves. On Sunday, Barcelona placed six past Valencia with Fermin Lopez who packed two before Raphinha and Lewandowski each got a brace from the bank.

If we look at that result, we should not be illusion that this will be a big test for Eddie How’s Newcastle United, but like almost 28 years to the day, and despite the family tree of our illustrious opponent, this Barcelona match is winning.