What? What are you saying? You have heard about Ronaldo, Romário, Ronaldinho and Messi but have never heard about FC Barcelona? It is the club that these four have been associated with.
Well, Futbol Club Barcelona, (FC Barcelona) commonly known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
It is the second most valuable sports team in the world worth $3.56 billion and is the world’s second richest football club in terms of revenue with an annual turnover of €560.8 million.
The club is mostly notable for its professional football team which currently competes in La Liga, the first division of the Spanish football league system.
FC Barcelona was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper. Since the club is the symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism, hence the motto ‘Més que un club’ (More than a club in English ). Unlike many other football clubs, the supporters own and operate Barcelona.
Domestically, Barcelona FC has won 24 La Liga, 29 Copa del Rey, 12 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies and is the record holder for the latter four competitions.
Internationally, the club has won twenty European and World titles four UEFA Champions League titles and one European Cup, a record four UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, a shared record five UEFA Super Cup, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a record three FIFA Club World Cup.
Barcelona FC was ranked first in the IFFHS Club World Ranking in 1997, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 respectively and currently occupies the third position on the UEFA club rankings. The club has a long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid and the matches between the two are referred to as El Clásico.
The Barcelonian team is one of the most widely supported teams in the world, and the club has one of the largest social media following in the world among sports teams.
Players of Barcelona FC have won a record number of Ballon d’Or awards (11), with recipients including Johan Cruyff, as well as a record number of FIFA World Player of the Year awards (7) along with Ronaldo, Romário and Ronaldinho.
In 2010, three players who came through the club’s youth academy namely Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi were chosen as the three best players in the world in the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards, an unprecedented feat for players from the same football school.
Apart from its professional football senior team, FC Barcelona has a large number of successful sections that include women’s football, beach soccer, basketball, wheelchair basketball, handball, roller hockey, ice hockey, rugby union, rugby league, futsal and men’s and women’s volleyball.
Now, let us talk about the four named players of the tem viz Ronaldo, Romário, Ronaldinho and Messi.
Ronaldo, who played as a striker is now a retired person. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time. In his prime, he was known for his dribbling at speed, feints and clinical finishing.
Romário is now a Brazilian politician who had earlier achieved worldwide fame as a professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, he is still regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time.
Romário starred for Brazil in their 1994 FIFA World Cup triumph, receiving the FIFA Golden Ball as player of the tournament. He was named FIFA World Player of the Year the same year. He came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century internet poll in 1999 and was elected to the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002 and was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players in 2004.
Ronaldinho Gaúcho, is a former Brazilian professional footballer and ambassador of FC Barcelona. He used to play mostly as an attacking midfielder but was sometimes also deployed as a forward or a winger.
He played most of his career with European clubs Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Milan as well as he played for the Brazilian national team. Often considered one of the best players of his generation and regarded by many as one of the greatest of all time, Ronaldinho won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d’Or.
He was renowned for his technical skills and creativity; due to his agility, pace and dribbling ability, as well as his use of tricks, overhead kicks, no-look passes and accuracy from free-kicks.
Messi Cuccittini, an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and regarded by many as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only player in history to win five FIFA Ballon d’Or awards,four of which he won consecutively and a record-tying four European Golden Shoes.
He won as many as 29 trophies with Barcelona, including eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and five Copas del Rey.
Both a prolific goal scorer and a creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most official goals scored in La Liga (361), a La Liga season (50), a club football season in Europe (73), a calendar year (91), as well as those for most assists made in La Liga (141) and the Copa América. He has scored over 600 senior career goals for club and country.
