This was not supposed to happen. Not when you play for Barcelona, not when you have formed the most lethal attacking front the world has ever seen and especially not when you are considered the hair apparent to the world’s greatest player, the one that will carry the torch after Lionel Messi’s retirement.  But it did happen, Neymar did leave Barcelona in 2017 for Paris St. Germain in an astonishing 220 million Euro and Barcelona had a void.

Barcelona Club

Not a club the size of Barcelona can leave this void unmanned. In came Ousmane Dembélé from Borussia Dortmund for the tune of 105 million Euro and six months later another huge buy – Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho, who came with a price tag of 142 million GBP. And Barcelona, once again, is the champion of La Liga.

Lionel Messi

But there is still Messi. So what is your opinion – Does Barcelona make Lionel Messi the great footballer he is? Or does Lionel Messi make Barcelona the great club it is? Whatever the answer to this question is, there would come a day in which you will be able to tell the next generation of football fans to come, “I have lived in this era in which Messi was playing for Barcelona and I have witnessed both him and the team conquering the world of football”.

FC Barcelona History

But before we dive into the present let’s have a brief look at the club’s history. FC Barcelona had humble beginnings. In October 1889, a young Swiss named Hans (Joan) Gamper who was residing in Barcelona, placed an advert in the Los Deportes magazine in order to find players that would be interested in forming a football club. A bunch of Swiss, English and local young men came and built the squad.

This is how FC Barcelona was born. Joan Gamper himself was a dominant figure in the club for its first 30 years, first as a player and later as a president. He also brought the idea of having the blue and red stripes as the club’s jersey. This beginning had marked one of Barcelona’s characteristic features of having a blend of foreign and local players and also having foreigners in the leading positions.

Of the long list of superb players that have played for  the club the following and more recent could be mentioned: Michael Laudrop, Romario, Stoichcov, Koeman and goal keeper Zubizarreta of the ‘Dream team’ and in Rijkaard’s and Pep’s teams Deco, Puyol, Ronaldinho , Samuel Eto’o, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. Xavi holds the record of appearances for the club with more than 470 games in LA Liga and more than 720 in total. Extraordinary Messi holds the record of goals for the club with more than 400 goals and is breaking almost any possible record of the club being just at the midst of his career.