Hans Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona, in an image from 1910 / SPORT
Joan Gamper founded FC Barcelona 125 years ago because he wanted to play football, not because he wanted to be its president and even if it was five times, some despite himself.
Soccer had been born a few years before due to the love of some English university students for kicking a leather ball and making it pass between the three posts of the rival team’s goal. It is the same madness that explains the creation of all the football clubs that exist, in some cases passed through the sieve of controversies and rivalries.
Joan Gamper founded FC Barcelona 125 years ago because he wanted to play football, not be its president
Immediately, the runs and kicks of those crazy people with short shoes, their shouts of joy and hugs because those from the same team had scored a goal or had won, it was not exactly understood. What, they caused the curiosity and admiration of the people who observed them, who became fond of them and became their faithful and devoted followers. And that mania for the ball game of those pioneers grew unstoppable and spread throughout the world until it became an incomprehensible social phenomenon and a fabulous business.
Of course, in confusion always reigns. And everything in football is excessive. That is why it is worth remembering that football is the game that footballers play and that fans admire and follow with irrational passion. That all the commotion and paraphernalia that is generated around it and adorns it has no importance and would be completely dispensable. And that all of us who are part of the circus and contribute to making it fat and stupid, have a purely commercial role. Better to know and remember it, even if it’s just to avoid doing a thousand men.
2024-12-04 18:01:00