More than a club: La Masia and Barcelona's golden age

Més que un club

Barcelona's motto, Més que un club, means more than a club. It says the club stands for Catalan identity as well as football, and it is written in the Camp Nou stands. The stadium opened in 1957 and is now known as the Spotify Camp Nou.

Barcelona also went more than 100 years without a shirt sponsor. The first logo on the front, in 2006, was UNICEF, and it wasn't a paid advert: the club donated money to wear it. Fans are called culés, a name that came from the old ground. When it was full, fans sat on the wall, and people outside saw rows of backsides.

Cruyff's Dream Team

Barcelona first reached the top of Europe in 1992. Johan Cruyff's Dream Team met Sampdoria in the European Cup final at Wembley, and Ronald Koeman's extra-time free kick won it 1–0. Guardiola, a player that night, later came back to rewrite the club's history as manager.

Ronaldinho arrived from Paris Saint-Germain in 2003, and the number 10 shirt passed from Rivaldo to Ronaldinho to Messi.

La Masia and the sextuple of 2009

The youth academy that produced Messi, Xavi and Iniesta is Barcelona's pride. All three finalists for the 2010 Ballon d'Or came from La Masia.

Guardiola won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in his first season, 2008–09. It would not have happened without Iniesta's stoppage-time shot from Messi's pass at Chelsea in the semi-final. Piqué, who returned from Manchester United in 2008, beat his old club in the final a year later. In 2009 Barcelona won La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League, the Spanish Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, the first sextuple ever.

They beat United again at Wembley in 2011, 3–1, with goals from Pedro, Messi and Villa. Messi, the heart of this era, became the club's top scorer with 672 goals in 778 games. In 2012 he scored 91 for Barcelona and Argentina, the world record for a calendar year.

MSN and after

Neymar came from Santos in 2013 and Luis Suárez from Liverpool in 2014, completing the MSN of Messi, Suárez and Neymar. Luis Enrique won a second Treble in his first season, 2014–15, beating Juventus 3–1 in Berlin with goals from Rakitić, Suárez and Neymar.

The 2017 game against PSG is still hard to believe. After losing the first leg 4–0, Barcelona won 6–1 at home, with Sergi Roberto's stoppage-time goal making it 6–5 on aggregate. The club signed Coutinho for a record fee in 2018, suffered an 8–2 defeat to Bayern in the 2020 Champions League quarter-final, and brought in Lewandowski from Bayern in 2022.