Messi equals César as FC Barcelona's all-time goalscorer against Real Madrid

The Argentine's goal, his 14th against arch rival Real Madrid, allows him to equal César's record as Barça's all-time scorer against Los Blancos

Leo Messi keeps on breaking records. This Thursday he became the all-time highest FC Barcelona goalscorer in Clásicos, level with César, with 14 goals. The Argentine genius made sure to nail his penalty shot after Ramos brought down Iniesta in the box. His goal gave FC Barcelona the lead. 


Di Stéfano, 18 goals 


The all-time record holder, however, is the Argentine Alfredo Di Stéfano. The once Real Madrid player scored a total of 18 goals in La Liga Clásicos. 

Leo Messi is also the only player to score in four consecutive Spanish Super Cup matches. In past editions of the tournament, Leo scored against Athletic Club and Sevilla.


Leo’s 14 goals against Madrid
2006/07. League FCB-Madrid (3-3). three goals
2008/09. League. FCB-Madrid (2-0). One goal
2008/09. League. Madrid-FCB (2-6). Two goals
2009/10. League. Madrid-FCB (0-2). One goal
2010/11. League. Madrid-FCB (1-1). One goal
2010/11. Champions League . Madrid-FCB (0-2). Two goals
2011/12. Super Cup. Madrid-FCB (2-2). One goal
2011/12. Super Cup. FCB-Madrid (3-2). Two goals
2012/13. Super Cup. FCB-Madrid (3-2). One goal

Best ever start for Leo Messi

This is the first time that Messi has scored five goals in the first three official FCB games of a season

He also set a personal best for preseason games with five goals

Leo Messi has started this season on even better form than ever. The Argentinian has scored five goals in three official matches (two in La Liga and one in the Spanish Supercup), which is even better than his goalscoring stats for other seasons. In the first three official games in previous seasons, four has been his best tally, achieved in both 2011/12 and 2010/11.

This great start in official matches follows on from his best ever stats for the preseason. Despite missing the first game in Hamburg, the current Ballon d’Or holder scored five goals in the other games.

The Liga goals are flowing for Leo Messi in much the same way as last term. He has actually scored in 15 of the last 17 Liga matches, a total of 31. That means the Argentinian, with a total of 173 goals in the competition, is now hot on the heels of FCB’s all-time highest scorer in the domestic championship, César (190 goals).

Messi’s double against Osasuna (1-2) not only won three crucial points in Pamplona, but also made him the only player to have scored two goals in both of the first games in a Liga season. Nobody has ever done that since the very first season all the way back in 1928/29.

From the very moment Barça was founded, the club had its own emblem that the players proudly wore on their shirts. It was the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona, a diamond shape divided into four quarters, with a crown and a bat on top, and surrounded by two branches, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm. This, even at such an early stage, was a way of expressing the club’s link to the city in which it was born.

This crest remained unchanged until 1910. Shortly after Gamper had saved the club from serious crisis in 1908, a decision was made to give the club its own differentiated crest. In 1910, the club held a competition between all the members interested in presenting proposals. The winner was Carles Comamala, who played for the club between 1903 and 1912, and was a medicine student at the time, as well as being a fine artist. And so the crest that the club wears to this day was created, although there have been a few variations. It is a bowl-shaped design, in which the two upper quarters maintain the St George Cross and the red and yellow bars of the original, which are the most representative symbols of Barcelona and Catalonia. The club initials FCB appear on a strip across the centre, and below are the Barça colours and a ball. So, what we have is a crest that honours the sporting dimension of the club as well as its connection to its city and country.


Since 1910, the changes made to the design have been minimal, generally just modifying the aesthetics and the patterns used for the outline. The biggest changes came about as a result of political obligations. When Franco came to power, the letters FCB were replaced by CFB, to reflect the way the club was forced to use the Spanish version of its name. The dictatorship also obliged the club to remove two of the four bars from one of the upper quarters, thus excluding the Catalan flag from the crest. On occasion of the club’s 50th anniversary in 1949, the four bars returned. The original letters were not recovered until late 1974, when the crest reverted to the original 1910 design.

The present crest is based on an adaptation made by designer Claret Serrahima in 2002, in which the lines are a little more stylised, the dots between the letters have been taken away, the name has been made smaller, and there are fewer pointed edges. The lines in this latest design are somewhat simpler, to make it easier for the crest and the club’s corporate identity to be reproduced in all the different formats.

Soundmap

Camp Nou has its own language

This display offers a brief taste of the atmosphere of a match at the stadium: from the moment the players are welcomed to the celebration of a Barça goal.
Tot el camp és un clam
The Camp speaks
Gooooal
Penalty and goal

Club in figures

FC Barcelona Information

(Last updated 22 September 2011)

Facilities

CAMP NOU
Capacity: 99.354
Dimensions: 105x68 m.
Opened: 24th Setember 1957
MINIESTADI
Capacity: 15.276
Dimensions: 103x65 m.
Opened: 23rd September 1982
Sport City Opened: 1st june 2006
Surface area: 136.839 m2
PALAU BLAUGRANA
Capacity: 7.235
Opened: 23rd October 1971
Ice Rink Capacity: 1.256
Opened: 30th October 1971
PALAU BLAUGRANA 2 (PICADERO)
Capacity: 1.200
Owned since 31th October 1974

Sports

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

3 teams: First team, Barça B, and Under 18 A

FORMATIVE FOOTBALL (18 teams)

Boys Teams: Under-18 B, Under-16 A, Under-16 B, Under-14 A, Under-14 B, Under-12 A, Under-12 B Under-12 C, Under-12 D, Under-10 A, Under-10 B, Under-10 C, Under-10, Under-8.
Girls teams: Female A, Female B, Female under 18, Female Under-14.

SECTIONS (14 sections)

4 Professional sections: Basketball, handball, roller hockey and 5-q-side football.
8 Amateur sections: Unes-FCBarcelona (Wheelchair basketball), athletics, rugby, baseball, volleyball, field hockey, ice hockey. and ice skating.
2 associated sections: CVB Barça (Women's Volleyball) and CBS Barça (women's basketball).

LOWER TEAM SECTIONS

Basketball (5 teams): Under 18, Under-16 A and B, Under-14 A and B.
Handball (5 teams): Senior B, Under-18 A, Under-16 A and B, and Under-14.
Rink (4 teams): Senior B, Under-18, Under-16 and Under-14.
5-a-side football (5 teams): Senior B, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14 and Under-12.
Athletics (12 teams): Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, Under-18, Promises and Senior Male. Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, Under-18, Promises and Senior Female.
Rugby (9 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Under-18, Under-16,  Under-14, Under-12, Under-10, Under-8, and Babies.
Volleyball (4 teams): Senior, Junior, Under-18, and Under-16 Male.
Field Hockey (7 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14 male. Senior and Under-18 female.
Ice Hockey (5 teams): Senior, U-18, U-13, U-11 and U-9.
Figure skating (18 teams): Beginners (Male and Female), Young Talent (Male and Female), Female Promises, Minimum (Male and Female), Youth (Male and Female), Novice Female, Junior 3rd (Male and Female ) Junior 2nd (Male and Female) Junior 1st (Male and Female). Ballet: Elite and young hopefuls.
Baseball (6 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14 and Under-12.
CVB Barça (Women's Volleyball) (7 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Junior, Under-18, Under-16, Under-14, and Under-12.
CBS club (women's basketball) (9 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Under-18, Under-16, Pre-Under-14, Mini A, Mini B, Pre-Mini A and Pre-Mini B

Members (177.246members)

By gender
● Male 134.099
● Female 43.147
Geographic Distribution:
● Barcelona 63.361
● Rest of Catalunya 87.890
● Out of Catalunya 25.995

Official supporters' clubs

Number of Clubs:
● 1.444 Geographic
Distribution:
● Zone 1 (Catalunya, Valencia, Balearic Islands and Catalunya North): 677
● Zone 2 (Spain): 675
● Zone 3 (Rest of the world): 92

Anthem

El Cant del Barça is the name given to the official anthem of the Futbol Club Barcelona

El Cant del Barça is the name given to the official anthem of the Futbol Club Barcelona. It was first played in 1974 at Camp Nou as part of the club’s 75th anniversary celebration. The words were written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinàs and the music was composed by Manuel Valls i Gorina.
The official version of the song was performed by the choir Coral Sant Jordi. It was written entirely in the Catalan language. In the FC Barcelona Museum we can hear the Cant del Barça in different languages, including all the languages of every player to have worn the Barça shirt. We can also enjoy the Cant del Barça as sung by the fans in Camp Nou at the 29 November 2009 match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
As a well-established ritual in the early matches in the Nou Camp stadium's public address strong feel-good anthem of the club, 'Can not Barca' fans to sing well.
The 'Cant del Barca' is not, however, neither the first nor the only song that had the club.

Learn about the history of hymns from FC Barcelona.

More than a club

A Historic Slogan

The slogan ‘més que un club’ (‘more than a club’) was coined on an exact date and by a particular person. It was president Narcís de Carreras, in his presidential acceptance speech in January 1968 who was the first person to use these words to describe the social importance of FC Barcelona in Catalonia. And, a few year later, in 1973, in his campaign for re-election to the club presidency, Agustí Montal i Costa gave it its definitive form when he adopted it during his election campaign. Barça is “quelcom més que un club de futbol” (“something more than a football club”), was the slogan used in the build up to the elections that were eventually won by Lluís Casacuberta.

Gamper, the key

At the same time, the roots of ‘more than a club’ go back much further. It was an idea first induced by club founder Joan Gamper during his first presidency in 1908. The period when Gamper took the reigns of the club, thus avoiding its dissolution at a dramatic assembly, is well documented. In fact, Gamper’s gesture to save the club from closure has often overshadowed his other great deed of the time. On that famous December 2, 1908, given the collective desertion, Gamper stood up to say “Barcelona cannot and should not die. If there is nobody who wants to try, I shall take full responsibility and look after it in the future.”

Gamper, who had founded the club, was now going to save it from disappearing. But more important for the future of the club was they way he wanted to run it. To the original reason why the club was founded, that of doing sport, he added another: for it to be a pro-Catalan club and actively serve its country. And so it was that the club approached the most actively pro-Catalan political sectors and had no doubts about coming out in defence of the identity and national rights of Catalonia, whether than be in support of the ‘Autonomy of the Commonwealth’ or to bring the Olympic Games to Barcelona.

The ‘sport and citizenship’ programme created by the executed president Josep Sunyol during the years of the Republic or the actions of president Agustí Montal in leading FC Barcelona to support the 1977 campaign for a Statute of Autonomy and to invite the restored president of the Generalitat, Josep Tarradellas, to the Camp Nou just a few days after his return from exile, were just a few of the practical applications of the idea of being 'més que un club' (‘more than a club’).

Written into the club statutes

The spirit that Gamper injected into FC Barcelona from 1908 (the year when it could be said that the club was ‘refounded’), has survived to this day and is even present in the current club statutes. It is article 4, describing the functions of the club, which states that the second objective is “complementarily, the promotion and participation in social, cultural, artistic, scientific or recreational activities that are adequate and necessary for maintaining the public representation and projection that the club enjoys, the fruit of a permanent tradition of loyalty and service to club members, citizens and Catalonia”.

'Més que un club' (‘More than a club’) in Spain

For different, but not contradictory, reasons, for many people living in the rest of Spain, FC Barcelona has also been seen as being 'més que un club' (‘more than a club’). If in the Catalan case the starting point can be dated to a deliberate decision made by the directors, or better put, that of its president Joan Gamper, in the Spanish case this movement came from below. It was the intellectual classes and left wing politicians that become Barça supporters in recognition of its role in defending democratic rights and freedom.

This movement reached its peak during the Spanish Civil War and under the Franco regime. There were some particularly poignant episodes, such as the tour of America, in which the team was received as ambassadors of the Republic, or the tram strike in 1951, with received the support of Barcelona fans much to the surprise of the Francoist authorities who could not understand why, on that Sunday in the pouring rain, the fans left Les Corts stadium after beating Santander 2-1 and refused to catch any trams. It is moments like these that show how FC Barcelona represents much more than just Catalonia for so many forward-thinking Spaniards.

The Franco regime explains much of the extension of 'més que un club' (more than a club’) to the rest of the Spanish territory. But it also goes back even further than that. Certain Spanish intellectuals had already alluded to the club back in the twenties, such as poet Rafael Alberti, whose 'Ode to Platko' is the prime example. Others used the figure of Josep Samitier, another of the key people for understanding the way that FC Barcelona managed to reach much further than its natural sphere of influence.