As FC Barcelona won the league title on Saturday evening, fans filled Las Rambla around Canaletes to celebrate. And yesterday the Barcelona streets filled up with supporters as the team travelled through the city in an open-bus parade. totalBarça’s Alexandra was there to get you pictures from the celebration…
In a new series, each month totalBarça’s Jason Pettigrove will examine one of the many facets of FC Barcelona’s intriguing and storied history. In the first edition of the series, Barça’s long standing rivalry with Real Madrid was examined in two parts. In this month’s post, Jason looks at one of the darker moments of the blaugrana’s past – the kidnap of forward Quini.
Surely one of the most unsavoury episodes in the history of FC Barcelona was the kidnap in 1981 of star striker Enrique Castro González, also known as ‘Quini’.
El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa, a fully licensed coach in UK, about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
El Pivote is taking a look at the transfers that may or may not occur this summer, the value of stats and science versus an eye for talent and overall what history can and should tell Zubizarreta about players joining Barcelona.
He’s been a fixture at the heart of the Manchester City defence, showing coolness under pressure and being a shining example to some of his more inconsistent teammates. Vincent Kompany has been the reigning Premier League champions’ best performer over the past couple of years, but could he be ready for a change of scenery this summer?
El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
El Pivote is back with a bang, taking issue with a renowned Spanish football expert and adding flesh to the bone of the possession conundrum.
In a new series, each month totalBarça’s Jason Pettigrove will examine one of the many facets of FC Barcelona’s intriguing and storied history. In the first edition of the series, Barça’s long standing rivalry with Real Madrid is examined through the many scorelines and story lines of El Clásico throughout the years. Part 2 looks at some of the important matches between the two teams, from the 1940s through the present day, and the influence of certain individual players on these Clásicos. Part 1 can be found here.
In 111 years of El Clásico matches, only one has ever been played on Boxing Day.
The Antonio Franco Tribute match was played at Les Corts on 26 December 1943 and Los Blancos were probably still feeling the effects of the previous days’ Christmas dinner as they succumbed 4-0 to a rampant Barça, which included a first half Martin hat trick.
There are numerous celebrations that mankind partake in – most are often wondrous and make us think, reflect and appreciate. A totalBarça reader did just that when ringing in the Iranian/Persian new year this past March 20, 2013. In this edition of We’ve got mail, we are excited to share with you a letter that was sent in to us that reflects on this culé’s passion for Barça in helping him celebrate Nowruz.
In a new series, each month totalBarça’s Jason Pettigrove will examine one of the many facets of FC Barcelona’s intriguing and storied history. In the first edition of the series, Barça’s long standing rivalry with Real Madrid is examined through the many scorelines and story lines of El Clásico throughout the years. Part 1 looks at the first matches between the two teams, as well as some of the changes that took place for Barça and El Clásico following the Spanish Civil War.
El Clásico – ‘The Classic’ to give it it’s literal meaning. A football match quite unlike any other. Catalonia’s finest against their heavyweight Castilian counterparts.
On behalf of totalBarça and its entire community, we proudly present our third contribution to UNICEF via The totalBarca Project…
In keeping with the programs at FC Barcelona, we wanted to mention a campaign they are currently supporting – the “Quit smoking with Barça” initiative. One of the agencies working with FCB on this project reached out to totalBarça and we are pleased to spread the word of this healthy campaign.
El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
Back from its winter break, El Pivote will focus on what Tito Vilanova and Jordi Roura should be concentrating on when it comes to team affairs in order to bring important trophies back to Catalunya at the end of this season.
Catalan journalist Guillem Gómez authored Francesc Calvet, El pagés que va triomfar al Barça, a book that tells the story of Calvet, a country man who took part in the mythical team of les Cinc Copes. In addition to being a part of that legendary Barça team, Calvet was also one of the first set of players who can be considered ‘La Masia players’. Gómez took time out to discuss with totalBarça his book and a little bit of blaugrana history. At the moment, the book is published only in Catalan, but a Spanish version is set to come and there is also a possibility for the book to be released in English.
As Culés, we are all extremely thankful to Josep Guardiola i Sala, a man that has achieved and changed so much at our club. But there is one particular group of people that might be a little more thankful than anyone else, a group of people whose lives and careers took a new turn when Josep Guardiola decided to let them make their debut for FC Barcelona. During his four years as coach of our beloved club, Pep gave no less than 22 youth team players their chance to make their dream of debuting for Fútbol Club Barcelona a reality. Five of these players also made their B team debuts under Pep.
Twenty-two players in four years is a large number and it means twenty-two changed lives. In this series, I will take a look at all 22 of these players, examine their career trajectories and how Pep and the chance to debut in the first team impacted their footballing careers and their lives.
In this edition, we’ll look into the stories of: The boy who was said to be the biggest goalkeeping talent at La Masia since Valdés, but who wanted too much, too early: Ruben Miño. And the boy who spent his entire childhood at the club but had to go through the hardest of challenges to get where he is today: Martín Montoya!
El Pivote (The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
This week on El Pivote, we will assess the tiny dip in form since the fantastic victory at Malaga 10 days ago, and look ahead to the trip back to Andalusia followed by the La Liga visit of Osasuna.
El Pivote (The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
El Pivote is back with a bang to fully discuss the controversial decision from Víctor Valdés to announce that he will not be renewing his contract at the club past 2014.
totalBarça was recently contacted by Fanbrandz – an organization that specializes in sports branding. In this edition of We’ve got mail, we bring you the article that Fanbrandz shared with us in order to explore the Barça brand and how it is rooted in the organization, squads, and fans.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
El Pivote returns for the new year with a discussion about expectations for the second half of the season and we comment on a few players, some of which is fallout from Monday’s Ballon d’Or awards.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
Here is the second instalment of El Pivote’s Christmas Holiday report cards! The first instalment can be found here.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is Blaugrana We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
As millions of young Barcelona fans around the world will be bringing home their report cards from school this week, El Pivote will attempt to give the players their respective grades as well.
On behalf of totalBarça and its entire community, we proudly present to everyone our second contribution to UNICEF via The totalBarca Project…
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
We return this week* with more discussion on Messi’s dominant role in the team and also whether or not his brilliance is somewhat overshadowing a few factors that Vilanova still needs to work on. totalBarça looks to redress the balance.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
In this week’s edition of El Pivote we will cover the league challengers, the brilliance of La Masia and one of its best ever exponents.
In a special five part series, totalBarça will feature each of the FC Barcelona nominees from the 23-man shortlist for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or. Over the next week, a different contributor will present a nominee and argue for why he should win this year’s prestigious award before the announcement of the final three contenders on November 29th. In the last edition, Alexandra looked at the many wonders of Andrés Iniesta. Today, Roberto Curtis will make a case for the “greatest player who has ever lived”, Lionel Messi.
No, he didn’t win La Liga and he ended up crashing out of the Champions League in the semi-finals. His home country was ineligible for the Euro Cup and did little more to compete internationally than continue its World Cup qualifying campaign.
In a special five part series, totalBarça will feature each of the FC Barcelona nominees from the 23-man shortlist for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or. Over the next week, a different contributor will present a nominee and argue for why he should win this year’s prestigious award before the announcement of the final three contenders on November 29th. On Friday, Amanda emphasized Gerard Piqué’s strong showing for Spain over the summer. Today, Alexandra examines a man of many nicknames and infinite football skill, Andrés Iniesta.
He is known by many names: The solutions man, Illusionista, Da Viniesta, Don Andrés, Andresito, Pale Knight, San Andrés, El héroe de Johannesburgo, Heartbreaker, Choir Boy, El genio de La Mancha, El mago de Fuentealbilla, El Caballero Blanco, El Fantasmita, El Cerebrito, Dulce Iniesta, El Mago Iniesta, El Sabio, Gasparin, El dios del futbol, Anguila Eléctrica, El Anti-Galactico, Humble Genius.
In Swedish we often use the phrase “Kärt barn har många namn”. Translated it means something like ‘a loved child has many names’. In other words, we have many names for the things we love. This is also a good way to describe Andrés Iniesta. I’m not sure if there is another football player that has as many nicknames as Andrés Iniesta. I’m also not sure if there is a more beloved player than Andrés Iniesta.
In a special five part series, totalBarça will feature each of the FC Barcelona nominees from the 23-man shortlist for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or. Over the next week, a different contributor will present a nominee and argue for why he should win this year’s prestigious award before the announcement of the final three contenders on November 29th. In the first part of the series, doris86pl examined the professional opinions about priceless midfielder Busquets. Today, Amanda will look at the year had by one of the more unexpected nominees on this year’s list, Gerard Piqué.
There’s no denying that 2012 has been a year of ups and downs for FC Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué (25). At club level, the defender spent the year beset by rumours of rifts and transfers away from the team, besides having to deal with very real injuries and a lack of form that resigned him to the bench for many of the blaugrana’s most important games last season. This is in stark contrast to how Pique spent his summer, playing every minute for Spain in their 2012 UEFA European Championship win, forming part of a solid defence that only allowed one goal all tournament, and proving that club squabbles could be left aside for his solid partnership with Sergio Ramos.
In a special five part series, totalBarça will feature each of the FC Barcelona nominees from the 23-man shortlist for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or. Over the next week, a different contributor will present a nominee and argue for why he should win this year’s prestigious award before the announcement of the final three contenders on November 29th. To start the series, doris86pl highlights the debutant on this year’s list, Sergio Busquets.
Our Ballon d’Or series this year begins with Sergio Busquets. One might say that with players like Messi, Iniesta and Xavi on the squad, it’s very difficult for a player like Sergio to get proper recognition from fans. Since there’s some truth to this, I’ve decided to search for words of wisdom about Busquets from football players and coaches, the professionals who see more than the average fan can from one’s couch.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
In this week’s edition of El Pivote we will consolidate what we have learned about Barcelona under Vilanova this season and consider how well set up we are, or not, for the rest of the campaign.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
This week on El Pivote we will examine certain defensive woes from the last couple of games.
After the success of totalBarça’s Twitter contest for Graham Hunter’s updated book, we were contacted by another writer of another Barça book. Richard Fitzpatrick recently wrote a book we would all likely want to get our hands on. The book is called El Clásico: Barcelona vs Madrid – Football’s Greatest Rivalry.
Drooling yet? We are.
totalBarça’s very own Padraig had the opportunity to interview Richard to discuss the motivation behind the book, Irish heritage effect on football, and being a current resident of Barcelona.
El Pivote (or The Pivot) is a weekly totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
This week’s El Pivote is dedicated to the man navigating the team through this season, unbeaten in the major two competitions and now finding himself breaking records already. We will look at his tactical tweaks and some telling tributes.
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