Electronic Arts UK Community - View Single Post - F.C. Barcelona

JulianBere · 25-10-2008, 05:24 AM

F.C. Barcelona

http://soccerlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/fc-barcelona-crest.jpg

CLUB INFO

CLUB FULL NAME: Fútbol Club Barcelona
NICKNAME(S): Blaugrana
FOUNDED: 29 November, 1899
OWNER/CHAIRMAN: Joan Laporta

LEAGUE INFO
LEAGUE: La Liga
PREVIOUS POSITION: 3rd (2007-2008)
# of TEAMS: 20

STAFF
MANAGER: Julian Berezovsky (Argentina)
ASSISTANT: George Junior (Brazil)
DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL: Robbie Cocker (Canada)
SCOUT: Hugo Gatti (Argentina)

RIVALS
Real Madrid
Espanyol

KITS

--- Home Kit ---

http://shop.fcbarcelona.com/product_images/maxzoom/prd_maxzoom_barca-45136.jpg

--- Away Kit ---

http://shirts.soccerlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barcelona-08-09-away-kit-1.jpg

STADIUM

http://www.soccer-training-info.com/images/camp_nou.jpg

Stadium - CAMP NOU
UEFA - 5 Stars

LOCATION - Barcelona, Spain.
OPENED - September 24, 1957
CAPACITY - 98,772
__________________

Club History
(If you don't want to read all of it, look through the bolded parts which I took at least 30 minutes or so to go through, plus the hour or so of modifying all the writing)

1899-1908
December 22, 1899, Joan Gamper placed an advert in newspaper, Los Deportes. Foot-ball Club Barcelona was born. A positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on November 29. Eleven players attended: Walter Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons.Foot-Ball Club Barcelona quickly emerged as one of the leading clubsCatalonia of both , and Spain, competing in both the Campeonato de Cataluña and the Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya, and also played in the first Copa del Rey final, losing 2-1 to Club Vizcaya.

1908-1923
In 1908 Joan Gamper became club president for the first time. Gamper took over the presidency as the club was on the verge of folding. The club had not won anything since the Campeonato de Cataluña of 1905 and its finances suffered as a result.
On March 14, 1909, FC Barcelona moved into the Carrer Indústria, a stadium with a capacity of 8,000. Gamper also launched a campaign to recruit more club members and by 1922 the club had over 10,000. This led to the club moving again, this time to Las Cortes, which inaugurated in the same year. This stadium had an initial capacity of 22,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000.
Gamper also recruited Paulino Allalalaara, the club's all time top-scorer with 356 goals, and in 1917 appointed Jack Greenwell as manager. This saw the club's fortunes begin to improve on the field. During the Gamper era, FC Barcelona won eleven Campeonato de Cataluña, six Copa del Rey and four Coupe de Pyrenées and enjoyed its first "golden age." The Barça team under Greenwall also included Sagi-Barba, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Félix Sesúmaga and Franz Platko.

1923-1939

In the middle of the glorious 1920s, Barça suffered from non-sporting conflicts which were to mark the following decade. On 14 June 1925, the crowd at a game in homage to the Orfeó Català jeered the Royal March, a spontaneous reaction against Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. As a reprisal the ground closed, while Gamper was forced to give up the presidency of the club. In 1928, the victory in the Spanish Cup against Real Sociedad was celebrated with a poem titled “Oda a Platko”, which was written by the important member of the Generation of 27, Rafael Alberti, inspired by the heroic performance of the Barça keeper.

On July 30, 1930, the club's founder, Joan Gamper, after a period of depression brought on by personal and money problems committed suicide.

Although they continued to have players of the standing of Josep Escolà, the club now entered a period of decline, in which political conflict overshadowed sport throughout society. Barça faced a crisis on three fronts: financial, social, with the number of members dropping constantly, and sporting, where although the team won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930-34, 36' and 38', success at Spanish level (with the exception of the 1937 disputed title) evaded them.
A month after the civil war began, Barça's left-wing president Josep Sunyol was murdered by Francisco Franco's soldiers near to Guadalajara. In the summer of 1937, the squad was on a tour in Mexico and USA in which it was received as an ambassador of the fighting Second Spanish Republic. That travel proved to be the financial saving of the club and also resulted in half the team seeking exile in Mexico and France. On 16 March 1938, the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club and caused big damages. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of the 'undisciplined' Catalanism. The club, now down to just 3,486 members, was facing a number of serious problems.

1939-1974
After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name forcibly changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. During the Franco dictatorship one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's stadium.
In 1943, at Les Corts, for the first leg of the semi-finals of the Copa del Generalísimo against Real Madrid, the result was a 3-0 win for Barça. Before the second leg, Barcelona's players had a changing room visitFranco's director of state security from. He 'reminded' them that they were only playing due to the 'generosity of the regime'. Madrid side won that game 11-1.
Despite the difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with Josep Samitier as coach and players like César, Ramallets and Velasco, they won La Liga for first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 they also won the first Copa Latina.
Coach Fernando Daucik and Ladislao Kubala, regarded by many as the club's best ever player, inspired the team to five different trophiesLa Liga including , the Copa del Generalísimo, the Copa Latina, the Copa Eva Duarte and the Copa Martini Rossi in 1952. In 1953 they helped the club win La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again. The club also won the Copa del Generalísimo in 1957 and the Fairs Cup in 1958.
With Helenio Herrera as coach, a young Luis Suárez, the European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and two influential Hungarians recommended by Kubala, Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor, the team won another national double in 1959 and a La Liga/Fairs Cup double in 1960. In 1961 they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in a European Cup eliminatory, thus ending their monopoly of the competition. To little avail, anyway- they lost 3-2 to Benfica in the final.
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid monopolising La Liga. The completion of the Camp Nou, finished in 1957, meant the club had little money to spend on new players. However the decade also saw the emergence of Josep Fusté and Carles Rexach and the club winning the Copa del Generalísimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. Barça restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the Bernabéu. The club changed its official name back to Futbol Club Barcelona in 1974.

1974-1978
The 1973/74 season saw the arrival, as player, of a new Barça legend – Johan Cruyff. Already an established player with Ajax, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, along the way defeating Real Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabéu. He was also crowned European Footballer of the Year in his first year at the club.

1978-2000
Josep Lluís Núñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objectives were to establish Barça as a world-class sports club and to give the club financial stability. Besides, in 1979 and 1982 the club won two of four European Cup Winners' Cups won in the Núñez era.
In June 1982 Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. In the following season, under coach César Luis Menotti, Barcelona and Maradona in an unforgettable final won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. However Diego's time with Barça was short-lived and he soon left for Napoli. At the start of the 1984/85 season, Terry Venables was hired as manager and he won La Liga with stellar displays by German midfielder Bernd Schuster. The next season, he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua Bucureşti during a dramatic evening in Seville.
After the 1986 World Cup, English top scorer Gary Lineker was signed along with goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta but the team could not achieve success while Schuster was excluded from the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the 1987/88 season and replaced with Luis Aragonés. That season finished with a rebellion of the players against president Núñez known as the Motín del Hesperia and the 1-0 victory at the Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad.
In 1988 Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and assembled the so-called Dream Team. He introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristáin, Jon Andoni Goikoetxea, Gheorghe Hagi, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov.
Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruijff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in Cruijff's departure.
Cruijff was briefly replaced by Bobby Robson who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996/97. He is quoted as saying, "Catalonia is a country and FC Barcelona is their army". He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV Eindhoven and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available.
Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time and he left for Inter Milan. However, new heroes such as Luís Figo, Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Luis Enrique Martínez and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 the club celebrated its 'centenari' winning the Primera División title and Rivaldo became the fourth Barça player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000.

2000-2003

The departures of Núñez and Van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luís Figo. As well as club vice-captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was considered by Catalans to be one of their own. So the Barça fans were distraught by Figo’s decision to join arch-rivals Real Madrid and during subsequent visits to the Camp Nou Figo was given an extremely hostile reception, including one occasion when a piglet's head was thrown at him from the crowd. The next three years saw the club in decline and managers came and went. President Gaspart did not inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003 he and Van Gaal resigned.

2003-Present

After the disappointment of the Gaspart era, the combination of a new young president Joan Laporta and a young new manager, former Dutch and AC Milan star Frank Rijkaard, saw the club bounce back. On the field, an influx international players, including Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o, Rafael Márquez, Lionel Messi, combined with a nucleus of home grown and Spanish players such as Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Víctor Valdés led to the club's return to success.
Barça won La Liga and the Supercopa de España in 2004–05, and stars Ronaldinho and Eto'o were voted first and third in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards.
In 2005–06 Barcelona repeated their league and Supercup successes. The pinnacle of the league season arrived at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in a 3–0 victory over Real Madrid, Frank Rijkaard's second victory at the Bernabeu, making him the first Barça manager to win there twice. Ronaldinho's performance was so impressive that after his second, and Barça's third goal the Real Madrid fans felt compelled to applaud him. In the Champions' League Barça beat English club Arsenal 2–1 in the final.
Despite being the favourites and starting strongly, Barcelona finished the 2006-07 season trophyless. There was open feuding as Eto'o publicly criticized coach Frank Rijkaard and Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho also admitted that lack of fitness affected his form. Barça advanced to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, winning the first leg against Getafe 5-2, but then lost the second leg 4-0. They took part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2006, but were beaten in the final by a late goal against Internacional. In the Champions League Barça were knocked out of the competition in the last 16 by eventual runners-up Liverpool on away goals.
In the2007-08 season, Barcelona again struggled, and weren't even able to finish in the top two of the Primera División. The season was marred with injuries to key players such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Deco, Leo Messi, and Yaya Touré. Despite a lack of league form, the team fared well in the cup competitions. Benefitting from favourable draws in the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona ousted less-fancied teams such as Rangers FC, Celtic FC and Schalke 04, before losing to eventual champions Manchester United 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. Barcelona also managed to get to the semifinals of the Copa del Rey, where they once again lost to the eventual champions (Valencia CF).

It was announced that Julian Berezovsky would take over Frank Rijkaard's duties after June 30. It marked the end of an era for the club, and high-profile departures of key players were expected in the summer.

(The history was copied from Wikipedia, but heavily modified)

25-10-2008, 05:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
JulianBere Elite Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Gender: Male Posts: 5,546	F.C. Barcelona - Regaining former glory! F.C. Barcelona http://soccerlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/fc-barcelona-crest.jpg CLUB INFO CLUB FULL NAME: Fútbol Club Barcelona NICKNAME(S): Blaugrana FOUNDED: 29 November, 1899 OWNER/CHAIRMAN: Joan Laporta LEAGUE INFO LEAGUE: La Liga PREVIOUS POSITION: 3rd (2007-2008) # of TEAMS: 20 STAFF MANAGER: Julian Berezovsky (Argentina) ASSISTANT: George Junior (Brazil) DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL: Robbie Cocker (Canada) SCOUT: Hugo Gatti (Argentina) RIVALS Real Madrid Espanyol KITS --- Home Kit --- http://shop.fcbarcelona.com/product_images/maxzoom/prd_maxzoom_barca-45136.jpg --- Away Kit --- http://shirts.soccerlens.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/barcelona-08-09-away-kit-1.jpg STADIUM http://www.soccer-training-info.com/images/camp_nou.jpg Stadium - CAMP NOU UEFA - 5 Stars LOCATION - Barcelona, Spain. OPENED - September 24, 1957 CAPACITY - 98,772 __________________ Club History (If you don't want to read all of it, look through the bolded parts which I took at least 30 minutes or so to go through, plus the hour or so of modifying all the writing) 1899-1908 December 22, 1899, Joan Gamper placed an advert in newspaper, Los Deportes. Foot-ball Club Barcelona was born. A positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on November 29. Eleven players attended: Walter Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons.Foot-Ball Club Barcelona quickly emerged as one of the leading clubsCatalonia of both , and Spain, competing in both the Campeonato de Cataluña and the Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the *Copa Macaya, and also played in the first* Copa del Rey final, losing 2-1 to Club Vizcaya. 1908-1923 In 1908 Joan Gamper became club president for the first time. Gamper took over the presidency as the club was on the verge of folding. The club had not won anything since the Campeonato de Cataluña of 1905 and its finances suffered as a result. On March 14, 1909, FC Barcelona moved into the *Carrer Indústria, a stadium* with a capacity of 8,000. Gamper also launched a campaign to recruit more club members and by 1922 the club had over 10,000. This led to the club moving again, this time to Las Cortes, which inaugurated in the same year. This stadium had an initial capacity of 22,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000. Gamper also recruited Paulino Allalalaara, the club's all time top-scorer with 356 goals, and in 1917 appointed Jack Greenwell as manager. This saw the club's fortunes begin to improve on the field. During the Gamper era, FC Barcelona won eleven Campeonato de Cataluña, six Copa del Rey and four Coupe de Pyrenées and enjoyed its first "golden age." The Barça team under Greenwall also included Sagi-Barba, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Félix Sesúmaga and Franz Platko. 1923-1939 In the middle of the glorious 1920s, Barça suffered from non-sporting conflicts which were to mark the following decade. On 14 June 1925, the crowd at a game in homage to the Orfeó Català jeered the Royal March, a spontaneous reaction against Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. As a reprisal the ground closed, while Gamper was forced to give up the presidency of the club. In 1928, the victory in the Spanish Cup against Real Sociedad was celebrated with a poem titled “Oda a Platko”, which was written by the important member of the Generation of 27, Rafael Alberti, inspired by the heroic performance of the Barça keeper. On July 30, 1930, the club's founder, Joan Gamper, after a period of depression brought on by personal and money problems committed suicide. Although they continued to have players of the standing of Josep Escolà, the club now entered a period of decline, in which political conflict overshadowed sport throughout society. Barça faced a crisis on three fronts: financial, social, with the number of members dropping constantly, and sporting, where although the team won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930-34, 36' and 38', success at Spanish level (with the exception of the 1937 disputed title) evaded them. A month after the civil war began, Barça's left-wing president Josep Sunyol was murdered by Francisco Franco's soldiers near to Guadalajara. In the summer of 1937, the squad was on a tour in Mexico and USA in which it was received as an ambassador of the fighting Second Spanish Republic. That travel proved to be the financial saving of the club and also resulted in half the team seeking exile in Mexico and France. On 16 March 1938, the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club and caused big damages. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of the 'undisciplined' Catalanism. The club, now down to just 3,486 members, was facing a number of serious problems. 1939-1974 After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name forcibly changed to *Club de Fútbol Barcelona* and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. During the Franco dictatorship one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's stadium. In 1943, at Les Corts, for the first leg of the semi-finals of the Copa del Generalísimo against Real Madrid, the result was a 3-0 win for Barça. Before the second leg, Barcelona's players had a changing room visitFranco's director of state security from. He 'reminded' them that they were only playing due to the 'generosity of the regime'. Madrid side won that game 11-1. Despite the difficult political situation, *CF Barcelona* enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with Josep Samitier as coach and players like César, Ramallets and Velasco, they won La Liga for first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 they also won the first Copa Latina. Coach Fernando Daucik and Ladislao Kubala, regarded by many as the club's best ever player, inspired the team to five different trophiesLa Liga including , the Copa del Generalísimo, the Copa Latina, the Copa Eva Duarte and the Copa Martini Rossi in 1952. In 1953 they helped the club win La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again. The club also won the Copa del Generalísimo in 1957 and the Fairs Cup in 1958. With Helenio Herrera as coach, a young Luis Suárez, the European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and two influential Hungarians recommended by Kubala, Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor, the team won another national double in 1959 and a La Liga/Fairs Cup double in 1960. In 1961 they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in a European Cup eliminatory, thus ending their monopoly of the competition. To little avail, anyway- they lost 3-2 to Benfica in the final. The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid monopolising La Liga. The completion of the *Camp Nou, finished in 1957, meant the club* had little money to spend on new players. However the decade also saw the emergence of Josep Fusté and Carles Rexach and the club winning the Copa del Generalísimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. Barça restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the Bernabéu. The club changed its official name back to *Futbol Club Barcelona* in 1974. 1974-1978 The 1973/74 season saw the arrival, as player, of a new Barça legend – Johan Cruyff. Already an established player with Ajax, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose a *Catalan name, Jordi,* for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, along the way defeating Real Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabéu. He was also crowned European Footballer of the Year in his first year at the club. 1978-2000 Josep Lluís Núñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objectives were to establish Barça as a world-class sports club and to give the club financial stability. Besides, in 1979 and 1982 the club won two of four European Cup Winners' Cups won in the Núñez era. In June 1982 Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. In the following season, under coach César Luis Menotti, Barcelona and Maradona in an unforgettable final won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. However Diego's time with Barça was short-lived and he soon left for Napoli. At the start of the 1984/85 season, Terry Venables was hired as manager and he won La Liga with stellar displays by German midfielder Bernd Schuster. The next season, he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua Bucureşti during a dramatic evening in Seville. After the 1986 World Cup, English top scorer Gary Lineker was signed along with goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta but the team could not achieve success while Schuster was excluded from the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the 1987/88 season and replaced with Luis Aragonés. That season finished with a rebellion of the players against president Núñez known as the Motín del Hesperia and the 1-0 victory at the Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad. In 1988 Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and assembled the so-called *Dream Team. He introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristáin, Jon Andoni Goikoetxea, Gheorghe Hagi, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov.* Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruijff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in Cruijff's departure. Cruijff was briefly replaced by Bobby Robson who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996/97. He is quoted as saying, "Catalonia is a country and FC Barcelona is their army". He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV Eindhoven and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available. Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time and he left for Inter Milan. However, new heroes such as Luís Figo, Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Luis Enrique Martínez and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 the club celebrated its 'centenari' winning the Primera División title and Rivaldo became the fourth Barça player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000. 2000-2003 The departures of Núñez and Van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luís Figo. As well as club vice-captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was considered by Catalans to be one of their own. So the Barça fans were distraught by Figo’s decision to join arch-rivals Real Madrid and during subsequent visits to the *Camp Nou* Figo was given an extremely hostile reception, including one occasion when a piglet's head was thrown at him from the crowd. The next three years saw the club in decline and managers came and went. President Gaspart did not inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003 he and Van Gaal resigned. 2003-Present After the disappointment of the Gaspart era, the combination of a new young president Joan Laporta and a young new manager, former Dutch and AC Milan star Frank Rijkaard, saw the club bounce back. On the field, an influx international players, including Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o, Rafael Márquez, Lionel Messi, combined with a nucleus of home grown and Spanish players such as Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Víctor Valdés led to the club's return to success. Barça won La Liga and the Supercopa de España in 2004–05, and stars Ronaldinho and Eto'o were voted first and third in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards. In 2005–06 Barcelona repeated their league and Supercup successes. The pinnacle of the league season arrived at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in a 3–0 victory over Real Madrid, Frank Rijkaard's second victory at the Bernabeu, making him the first Barça manager to win there twice. Ronaldinho's performance was so impressive that after his second, and Barça's third goal the Real Madrid fans felt compelled to applaud him. In the Champions' League Barça beat English club Arsenal 2–1 in the final. Despite being the favourites and starting strongly, Barcelona finished the 2006-07 season trophyless. There was open feuding as Eto'o publicly criticized coach Frank Rijkaard and Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho also admitted that lack of fitness affected his form. Barça advanced to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, winning the first leg against Getafe 5-2, but then lost the second leg 4-0. They took part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2006, but were beaten in the final by a late goal against Internacional. In the Champions League Barça were knocked out of the competition in the last 16 by eventual runners-up Liverpool on away goals. In the2007-08 season, Barcelona again struggled, and weren't even able to finish in the top two of the Primera División. The season was marred with injuries to key players such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Deco, Leo Messi, and Yaya Touré. Despite a lack of league form, the team fared well in the cup competitions. Benefitting from favourable draws in the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona ousted less-fancied teams such as Rangers FC, Celtic FC and Schalke 04, before losing to eventual champions Manchester United 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. Barcelona also managed to get to the semifinals of the Copa del Rey, where they once again lost to the eventual champions (Valencia CF). It was announced that Julian Berezovsky would take over Frank Rijkaard's duties after June 30. It marked the end of an era for the club, and high-profile departures of key players were expected in the summer. (The history was copied from Wikipedia, but heavily modified) __________________ Conquistadores Best FIFA Club ever. Members: JulianBere ChiboyGeorge Kaka11\|\|LFC Mark Robbie Chelsea11 Last edited by JulianBere; 26-10-2008 at 05:12 AM..