On Wednesday, November 29, FC Barcelona will celebrate its first 124 years of existence. It is very difficult to find many institutions, I am not saying sports, but of any other type, that are not religious, monarchical dynasties, the Bank of England, the University of Bologna, that are at the same time so old and retain such an impact on our day to date. day. The spirit that has guided the history of Barça has survived all types of adversity and gives the impression that, today, it is still stronger than ever. Far from trying to explain why, God forbid, it is incredible that, in three different centuries of human history, XIX, XX and XXI, the desire of twelve young people, two Swiss, three English, one German, one Aragonese and five Catalans , who were around twenty years old, continue to make so much sense to so many people. It's not just that there were no telephones, no cars or record players at the time they founded it, but the club has survived four regime changes, two of them dictatorships, a civil war, the exile of a president, the execution on the other, two world wars, major economic crises, technological changes, cultural revolutions...
Another quality that immediately catches your attention, when you look around, is the success with which, at least, exactly since the Barça of the Five Cups, that is, since the beginning of the 1950s, this history of Barça better explains the evolution of world football and its avant-garde, tactics and stylistics, than that of any other club. From the Hungarian Magical Magyars of the Swiss World Championship in 1954, with Czibor and Kocsis, to Messi's Argentina, which won Qatar 2022, passing through the total football of Michels' Clockwork Orange, which dominated the decade of the 70s, and its evolution in Cruyff's Dream Team in the 90s and Guardiola's Barça Eterno in the 2000s, which led to the Spanish victory in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Not forgetting the Brazilian stars who dominated the world championships from the 90s: Romário, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho. All of them dressed in Blaugrana. The list of proper names in this history of football talent, and its influence on the history of sport, makes you fall flat on your ass: Alcántara, Samitier, Kubala, Suárez, Helenio Herrera, Michels, Cruyff, Menotti, Maradona, Laudrup, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Figo, Eto'o, Rijkaard, Guardiola, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi... Being a culé like me, it's hard to say. But I'm afraid that, despite our beloved opponents, not even us culés say it often enough: if you really like football, even just a little, you like Barça!
