From September 6 to September 15, we will be sharing with you a series of birthday celebration posts from the team at totalBarça to celebrate the site’s 2-year anniversary.  We hope that you will enjoy each post leading up to totalBarca’s 2nd birthday and join us in celebrating this wonderful occasion. September 15, 2011 – totalBarca turns 2 years old!!

After Thursday’s look at the profiles of Hady and Maria Ines, today we’d like to present our newest member, MegRyan, and one of our longest serving, Rakun.

MegRyan

Writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

I’m the noob here around totalBarça as I was just hired this summer, but I take on the role as gracefully as possible! I found tB a few months before our 1st birthday last year when, if I remember correctly, I was looking for information about Gerard Piqué’s “semi-autobiographical” book he had written. I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t in Spanish until tB, and from there, it was love at first “site” (Yeah, that was pretty punny). What drew me to FC Barcelona was that it is “més que un club.” Football, to me, is a sport that can unite people from all different cultures/backgrounds/circumstances, and no club emphasizes this more than Barça. Oh, and they play pretty well too. I’m a sucker for beautiful passing. (Can you guess who my favorite player is?) totalBarça is actually the same way, not about the passing, but about bringing people together. We that work at tB love the club, and so do all of you, our readers, so what better way to live out the club’s motto than create this community where we can all feel more connected to Barça? As an aspiring journalist, current university student, and footie fanatic, I love writing for tB and hope to celebrate many more birthdays together!

Recommended reading: Since I’ve been reading the site for some time, it is very difficult to choose a favorite piece. From
what I’ve written (a much smaller pool), my favorite is the opinion piece I wrote titled “Why the maestro never gets his standing ovation.” I like it because I love anything about Xavi and because writing it was a much longer and more dramatic process than originally intended, aka, it was memorable. As for pieces others wrote, I’m a big fan of opinion pieces in general or anything that’s been translated, as my Spanish skills are still a work-in-progress (mais, je parle français)!

Rakun

Writer based in Amherst, New York, United States

I started following Barcelona in 1999, when Rivaldo, Figo, and Kluivert were still with the club. My first football competition that I really enjoyed was the 1998 World Cup where France emerged as winners. I liked Barcelona because I like the city and culture (I’ve played classical guitar since 10th grade), but mostly it was because they were so underrated at the time and their players were cheap if you bought them in the Master League mode of Winning Eleven. Back in my high school days, playing Winning Eleven was one of the ways we could connect with friends.

I took pride in supporting them still, although Real Madrid, Juventus, or Manchester United were far more glorious in those days, and I still remember the feeling when Barcelona failed to go further than the quarter finals in the 2002/03 season because Zalayeta scored for Juventus in extra time. That was one of the most furious moments in my time supporting Barcelona (I threw my remote control on a wooden chair and it went straight through its spindle). Times have changed considerably since then, and I am most grateful for the signing of Ronaldinho, which coincidentally came together with David Beckham signing for Real Madrid. I am sure most of the readers here know the story behind Ronaldinho’s signing, as we were close to signing Beckham instead if not for a certain Real Madrid president being … well, just himself.

I joined totalBarça in their infancy as I believe I needed a place where I could write, discuss, and be heard. It is very meaningful for me to read comments, connect with readers around the world, and know that maybe one day our thoughts and articles can resonate through to our beloved players. Thanks to totalBarça’s readers who make this blog feel like we are one big family who will support FC Barcelona through thick and thin. Thank you totalBarça for a wonderful two-year-journey which is just the start.

Recommended viewing: Any Allas videos

Stay tuned for part five tomorrow.