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?
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.
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.
“Give me joy in my heart, Henrik Larsson, give me joy in my heart, I pray, give me joy in my heart Henrik Larsson, give me Larsson ’til the end of day.. Henrik Larsson, Henrik Larsson, Henrik Larsson is the king of kings…”
The date is October 23rd, the scene is the Barcelona metro as the Celtic supporters make their way towards the Camp Nou. It is almost nine years since Henrik Larsson left Celtic but such is his impact that he will never be forgotten neither in Glasgow nor in Barcelona. Few footballers manage to have an enormous impact on the club they play for and their fans. There are even fewer who manage it in two different clubs. totalBarça received the privilege to converse with the one who did – Henrik Larsson!
We recently came upon the creative designs of Hyperakt, a New York-based firm that in addition to being a design agency, specializes in generating the sports-based creative prints known as The Champions Ring. It was the FC Barcelona winning Champions Rings that caught our eye: 2010/11 Champions League, 2008/09 Champions League, 2005/06 Champions League. Here is also Spain’s 2012 Euro Cup, 2010 World Cup, and 2008 Euro Cup for good measure. Deroy Peraza, founder and creator of both Hyperakt and The Champions Ring, is a die hard Barça fan and has lived in Barcelona. He met with totalBarça team member, Roberto Curtis, in Brooklyn, USA to give us an exclusive interview on his thoughts on Barça and how it all started for The Champions Ring. Continue reading »
When the helpful people at BackPage Press got us an interview with Graham Hunter, author of the recently released Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, we couldn’t help but send the renowned football journalist a bagful of questions. Mr. Hunter, gracious as ever, took time out of his busy schedule once again (he gave us an interview in December, 2011) to tend to our long list.
Since Mr. Hunter lately has been a sought-after subject among interviewers, totalBarça tried to ask him questions that covered a range of topics—from discussing his writing process for the book to his observations on how Futbol Club Barcelona has evolved since he arrived in Barcelona a decade ago. Some questions deal with the future of the club, such as the prospect of a Xavi-less FC Barcelona, and others with his opinion on club-related issues such as the feasibility of the socio model. Hunter’s replies are fun and frank, and more importantly, full of insight. We hope you enjoy this most comprehensive (and extensive) email interview with the prolific Scot. We guarantee that it’s worth the time and instilled comfort reading Hunter’s views on the club’s future. And if you haven’t gotten a copy of the book yet, you might want to reconsider after reading this interview.
Leydon’s Barca DNA illustration in Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World
January 31, 2012 marked the ebook release of a much-anticipated and must-have title among cules – Barcelona-based Scot journalist Graham Hunter’s Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World. Hunter looks at the club’s recent successful period under Pep Guardiola by going back in time to the Johan Cruyff era and analyses how Barca’s sterling style emerged under the legendary Dutch player. The book ”takes you on to the pitch and the training ground, inside the dressing room and along the corridors of power of FC Barcelona” to better understand how Barca became the Spanish, European and World champions. Apart from Hunter’s keen observations and in-depth analysis, the book also features fine black-and-white artwork by Dan Leydon, a designer based in Strandhill, “a surfing village” on the West coast of Ireland.
Today we want to share with you two songs performed by Toni Beiro that are closely connected with FC Barcelona. In addition to the great videos, we have a little surprise for you, an exclusive interview with the artist. Toni agreed to share the ‘background’ story about his songs and some opinions about FC Barcelona. Click continue reading to enjoy the interview and listen to the songs.
Diver & Aguilar’s Vintage Football cards series featuring FC Barcelona players.
Mike Diver & Pedro Aguilar, the Brit-Spanish team behind most of Barca’s advertising and marketing photography in the last five years, took time out of their busy schedule to answer another set of questions from totalBarca. This time around, we asked them about the new campaign, the striking vintage football card series, the cameras they work with and their relationship with the players and the club. Their responses tells us a lot about the humility of Barca players and what Barca stands for as a club.
Tell us about the brief from FC Barcelona for the current marketing and advertising campaign.
I think this year the brief was quiet different from what had been conceived of in the past. For the last few years the work and concepts were much closer to those of typical advertising, the very powerful graphic images of campaigns for Nike etc. There has also been a trend in advertising which has started to explore a more documentary style of approach. This is something you can see in our “In Adoration” project and this year we took this style further using alot more colour photography. The imagery is less two dimensional and really feels like you have something interactive in front of you, you’re becoming part of the game, it is very filmic.
Apart from shooting FC Barcelona’s marketing and advertising images, Diver & Aguilar also get the opportunity to capture the Barça players out of the studio and onto the field where they are at their comfortable best. This is a whole new ball game altogether for the acclaimed photographer duo, yet they return with equally amazing results. The images were used in Barça’s campaign “Long Live Barca, Long Live Entertainment”. After the jump are more images from Diver & Aguilar’s documentary portfiolio.
Mike Diver with Messi
In April, May and June of 2011, renowned photographer duo Diver & Aguilar travelled across Europe to shoot for the launch of Nike’s club kits for 2011-12. Commissioned by the creative agency of Nike in Portland, Oregon, the campaign’s promotional line was, “A warrior must only take care that his spirit is not broken ,because I wear this shirt, with valour, honour and with pride.” For the project, the duo shot images of some of the world’s leading players from popular clubs such as reigning European and Club World Cup champions FC Barcelona and Manchester United, Arsenal, Celtic, Juventus and Inter Milan. ”The scopes of the campaign were to show the new kits that Nike had created for each team,” said Mike Diver about the project, as well as “the full range of Nike training gear and accessories and, last but not least, the release of the new Nike ball designed for Premier League and La Liga.” Their aim was to capture “some of the more intimate moments from the dressing room“. There are also black-and-white portraits of players in more reflective moods. Beautifully lit and composed, the photographs show the players in a lesser-seen avatar. Watch three Barca players who were part of this campaign and know more about Diver & Aguilar’s approach to the campaign after the jump.
Early last year we got an exclusive interview with acclaimed photographers Mike Diver and Pedro Aguilar, who have shot some striking images of Barça players over the last few years. (In case you missed it, click here and here). We are big fans of their work – we thoroughly recommend their black-and-white portraits of Barça players in the Icons series - and the duo were kind enough to share with us the official poster they shot for this season. totalBarça will be presenting more exciting work from Diver & Aguilar in the coming few days as well as an interview about their recent campaign with the club. Stay tuned.
After the jump, another photo from the poster campaign. Show your love in the comments.
Graham with his daughter Kara at a cafe in Barcelona with tB
totalBarça’s Alexandra sat down recently with renown football journalist Graham Hunter for an interview where she took the opportunity to ask the Barcelona based journalist a few questions about FC Barcelona, especially for the readers of totalBarça.
After the jump you can read why Graham thinks the most recent El Clàsico was a better performance for Barça than the 5-0 last season, why the club’s future is so bright, and who is the best sixteen year old he has ever seen play (and no, it’s not Messi).
totalBarça’s Alexandra and Doris were in Barcelona last week and after the game between FC Barcelona B and UD Almeria at the Miniestadi (3-3), they got the chance to talk with Almeria player Henok Goitom in the mixed zone. During the conversation, Henok gave his view on Barça’s current crop of youngsters in the B team.
In an exclusive interview given to totalBarça’s Hady, FC Barcelona Board of Directors member, Didac Lee, who is responsible for all technology related divisions, was kind enough to answer some of our questions regarding the club and its use of technology, specifically the Club’s new site design and future plans. Very interesting answers were given by one of the most active members of the current board of directors at Can Barça.
totalBarça has had the privilege to make the following video of Xavi for the Búhos song “La meva inspiracio” (My inspiration). We can also happily say that we are also the first to publish this brand new song from Búhos. Be among the first to watch the video and hear the song after the jump.
In Part I of their exclusive interview with totalBarca, Diver & Aguilar shared with totalBarca their beginnings with FC Barcelona and discussed the different projects they have shot for the club over three years. In this second and final part, the duo talk about the players – the most camera-friendly and their personal pick - the experience of shooting El Clasico at Camp Nou in 2009 and their favourite Barca photo. Read after the jump to know whether they themselves are Barcelona fans or not.
Last month we received a mail from a reader pointing us to wonderful black-and-white portraits of FC Barcelona players. Wowed by the images, part of FC Barcelona’s official 2010-11 campaign, totalBarça decided to find more about the men behind the lens. We learned that the company behind it was Diver Aguilar Photographic Ltd, a team comprised of British photographer Mike Diver and Spanish fine artist and re-toucher Pedro Aguilar. While Diver has worked extensively in the music industry shooting artists like Radiohead, Bjork and Kylie Minogue, Aguilar started out as a painter and later turned to retouching. The two joined hands and have become renowned for both their commercial photography (clients include Coca Cola and FC Barcelona) as well as documentary work (subjects such as Native Americans, Matador and Classic 1950s Rockers).
For FC Barcelona, the duo hasn’t just shot portraits and team posters but also handled the international ticketing and marketing campaign for the club, as well as shot the UEFA Champions League final in Rome and El Clasico in 2009. In an exclusive to totalBarca, Diver & Aguilar took time out of their busy schedules to tell us how their association with the club began in 2008, on working with the players, and more importantly, share and discuss some of their beautiful work. For Diver & Aguilar’s Barca story and some amazing pictures continue reading after the jump.
Do you remember the 4-year-old girl named Alleke who enquired “Where’s Xavi?”. The popular video touched the hearts of fans around the world. Some people got together and ensured that Alleke’s dream to meet Xavi Hernandez came true. Kelly, Alleke’s father, shares this wonderful story with totalBarca in an exclusive interview.
The long wait is over! Here it is folks..
totalBarça got a chance for an exclusive interview with ex-Barca player Patrik Andersson. Patrik joined FC Barcelona from FC Bayern Munich in 2001 and played as a central defender in what was to be a tough 3 years for him before he returned to his home club Malmo FF in 2004.
Read more after the jump.
Today we want to share with you a song about Victor Valdes performed by Joaquin. In addition to a great video, we have a little surprise for you, an exclusive interview with the artist. Joaquin agreed to share the ‘background’ story about this cool song and memories connected with our ‘Numero Uno’ goalkeeper.
Interview after the jump! Enjoy!
totalBarca is proud to present its readers with an exclusive show called ‘Informe Robinson’. It stars Former Liverpool star Micheal Robinson, who is now a part of the Canal+ network.
In this half hour special Robinson takes us into Victor Valdes’ moving story. So on the eve of Victor getting called up to La Furia Roja for the first time, we celebrate with our readers a special gem.
Video after the jump! Enjoy! Continue reading »
TotalBarca is proud to present its readers with an exclusive show called ‘Informe Robinson’. It stars former Liverpool star Micheal Robinson, who is now a part of the Canal+ network.
In this half-hour special, Robinson takes us into Xavi Hernandez and Andrés Iniesta’s private lives where they talk about everything under the sun.
A must watch for every culé.
The next installment of the show will be up soon, video after the jump, keep checking back!
TotalBarca is proud to present its readers with an exclusive show called ‘Informe Robinson’. It stars Former Liverpool star Micheal Robinson, who is now a part of the Canal+ network.
In this half hour special Robinson takes us into Xavi Hernandez and Andrés Iniesta’s private lives where they talk about everything under the sun.
A must watch for every culé.
The next installment of the show will be up soon, video after the jump, keep checking back!
Catch up if you missed it!
Part I
TotalBarca is proud to present its readers with an exclusive show called ‘Informe Robinson’. It stars Former Liverpool star Micheal Robinson, who is now a part of the Canal+ network.
In this half hour special Robinson takes us into Xavi Hernandez and Andrés Iniesta’s private lives where they talk about everything under the sun.
A must watch for every culé.
The next installment of the show will be up soon, video after the jump, keep checking back!
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