Based in the city of Barcelona in the Catalonia region in Spain, the club was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan players led by Joan Gamper and quickly became a symbol for Catalan culture.
Barcelona is the most successful club in Spain with the most number of official titles won. It has the largest fan base among all sports teams among all major social networks. Its long lasting rivalry with Real Madrid is renowned around the world, matches between the two teams are referred to as “El Clasico”
In 1978 Joseph Lluiz Nunez became the first elected club president of FC Barcelona and since then the members of Barcelona have elected the club president. This was closely tied with the Spain’s transition to democracy and the end of Franco’s dictatorship. His 22 year long presidency deeply affected the image of the club as Nunez held a strict policy regarding wages letting players such as Maradona, Romario and Ronaldo go rather than meeting their demands.
When Johan Cruyff was appointed to the club as Manager in 1988 he assembled the the so called “Dream-Team” using a mix of both Spanish and International players such as Joseph Guardiola, Jose Mari Bakero, Ronald Koeman, Romario and Hristo Stoitchkov. Under Cruyff’s guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. With 11 trophies he became the club’s most successful manager to date.
Pep Guardiola became manager at the end of the 2008-2009 season. He brought the now famous tiki-taka style of play and started building the team around Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. He was the coach that extended the club’s number of official trophies to 74, surpassing Real Madrid’s total amount of official trophies.
Today the Club’s Manager is Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino. He succeeded Tito Vilanova who resigned after less than a year because of health issues.