Barcelona prides itself in being more than a club.
It was in the way it was formed as, in what was an unusual move at the time, a group of multinationals(English, Swiss and Spanish) came together in 1899 to form what is now considered one of the best clubs in the world.
For providing safe haven to those who had the courage to stand up to Hitler's BFF General Franco, it was mesque un club. Camp Nou was the only place in Franco's Spain where you were allowed to speak Catalan freely, an act that was otherwise punishable under Francisco's Dictatorship.
Their current crest was designed by Catalonian Carles Comamala, a doctor, a footballer and cartoonist, way back in 1910 when he won a contest to design Barça's logo to celebrate Barca's move to the 8,000 seater Camp de la Indústria a year earlier. Even back then Barça showed that it was a club of the people and its players by awarding the redesign of their logo to a Catalonian who jut happened to be an ex-Barcelona forward.
They rewarded their first most faithful servant with a testimonial match, honouring Ramón Torralba's loyalty in 1917, who eventually stayed at the club for 15 years between 1913 and 1928. Even back then they knew the value of a player.
The new breed of football followers will be familiar with Lionel Messi's story of being effected with a growth hormone deficiency, which led many clubs to believe that he would never fulfil his potential of being a footballer. Only FC Barcelona saw the animal he could be on the pitch. They offered to pay his medical bills and he was forever in their debt. He rewards them in each match to this day and for many more to come by crippling their opponents defence for a minimum of 90 minutes a week. That's the kind of return the Basque club commands from their own. Which other club would even consider signing an eleven year old footballer without feet?
It was in the way it was formed as, in what was an unusual move at the time, a group of multinationals(English, Swiss and Spanish) came together in 1899 to form what is now considered one of the best clubs in the world.
For providing safe haven to those who had the courage to stand up to Hitler's BFF General Franco, it was mesque un club. Camp Nou was the only place in Franco's Spain where you were allowed to speak Catalan freely, an act that was otherwise punishable under Francisco's Dictatorship.
Their current crest was designed by Catalonian Carles Comamala, a doctor, a footballer and cartoonist, way back in 1910 when he won a contest to design Barça's logo to celebrate Barca's move to the 8,000 seater Camp de la Indústria a year earlier. Even back then Barça showed that it was a club of the people and its players by awarding the redesign of their logo to a Catalonian who jut happened to be an ex-Barcelona forward.
They rewarded their first most faithful servant with a testimonial match, honouring Ramón Torralba's loyalty in 1917, who eventually stayed at the club for 15 years between 1913 and 1928. Even back then they knew the value of a player.
The new breed of football followers will be familiar with Lionel Messi's story of being effected with a growth hormone deficiency, which led many clubs to believe that he would never fulfil his potential of being a footballer. Only FC Barcelona saw the animal he could be on the pitch. They offered to pay his medical bills and he was forever in their debt. He rewards them in each match to this day and for many more to come by crippling their opponents defence for a minimum of 90 minutes a week. That's the kind of return the Basque club commands from their own. Which other club would even consider signing an eleven year old footballer without feet?
But for all their glorious past and rich traditions, Barcelona might have a PR battle on their hands, to hang on to their image of being more than a club to the people of Catalonia and millions of fans around the world.
The first hit they took was with the transfer of Neymar. Heads have rolled since it came to light that Santos received lesser money for their star boy than Neymar's father did and at first it seemed like Barça had their fate sealed for a while with a 2 year transfer embargo that was declared upon this discovery. Of course, FIFA's shambolic willpower ensured that Barça would be allowed to buy players in this window and they have not let that opportunity slip through their hands. On 11th July, 2014 they made a transfer that has the potential to fill their closets with a host of trophies, but then again, leave another one wide open for the world to see the skeletons hiding in it.
Luis Suarez will have his name in the history books for a while for being the 3rd most expensive transfer in the history of football after Liverpool sold the Uruguayan to Barcelona for £75 million pounds. He is also the only known footballer of repute who has gone down in the history books for failing to control his cannibalistic instincts on 3 different occasions and that stat will always overshadow any headline he writes for his footballing prowess in the Blaugrana.
He isn't Barça's first Luis Suarez mind you. From 1955 to 1961, Barça managed to convince another Luis Suarez to join them from Deportivo La Coruna. He is considered one of the best Spanish players to have graced the game and his only Ballon D'Or of the 3 he was nominated for came during his stay at Barca, winning 2 League Titles and 2 Copa Del Rey's among other trophies in his 6 year stint. Wanting to test his performances outside of Spain, he signed with Inter where he won a lot more prestigious honors than Luis Suarez of Uruguay has won so far.
Given he performed at a time when 'Inter' were an Italian club that Suarez transferred to after Barça and 'net' was what he found the back off quite successfully for both teams and 'face' & 'book' were just two separate words that came together in a library when students shoved their faces into books, not much is there on the internet about the enigmatic Spanish captain.
Unsurprisingly, a google search for his name does not throw up any hits for the Suarez from black and white pictures and earlier you could at least search the keywords Luis Suarez Barcelona and expect to read up about the gifted Spaniard, but as you can see now, Luis Suarez Miramontes is a distant memory within a day of this sensational transfer from Liverpool to Barcelona.
There is a similarity beyond the name and talent of course. The rags to riches of the Uruguayan is well documented of course, but what is not as well known is that his namesake learned his art by kicking around a bag of rags on the streets of Catalan. And that's where it ends because search all you want through the history books, you will not read an article about Luis Suarez, the Miramontes version, having bitten anyone. Suarez Sr. was a gifted playmaker while Suarez Jr. is one of the most lethal strikers in the world right now. But so is his bite. FC Barcelona is a club that has thrived on goodwill and a global image that is synonymous with the life lessons football gives you rather than the riches it provides - case in point, the Barcelona football jersey was brand free up until 2006 when they leased out the front of their shirt to Unicef, for free. Only in 2011 did the Catalan giants cash in on that space.
Given the uncountable refereeing decisions that have been favorable for Barcelona in the recent past (I guess that is some karma - 5 years of charity to Unicef and they are reaping the rewards through charitable refereeing now), the taint and tarnish that Neymar's transfer has eventually brought that allegedly even included an orgy for it to happen, is Barcelona's reputation that impervious to fault that it can ride on past glories to such an extent that people actually get excited about the prospect of seeing Neymar, Messi and Suarez lining up together rather than get disgusted by seeing football's dark side being glorified by £75 million pounds being thrown at it amidst a 4 month ban that has been imposed because Suarez is guilty of a hat-trick of on field bites? That too at a time when a lot of that money can be used to teach kids, I don't know, not to bite people they play football with? If Luis Suarez was in any other profession, biting his co-worker would not have resulted in a 4 month ban. It would have in solitary confinement.
Do Barcelona have the elixir that will breathe new life into this most gifted footballer and stop him from attempting yet another maiming by tooth? Or is it going to be a case of a glorious reputation taking a nosedive in the space of two transfers. It is sad that the club that is famous for being more than just that (and perhaps the only club in the world that had a rightful claim to that statement), would rather stake their reputation on trophies than by meaningful actions beyond football, which categorizes FC Barcelona as just a football club. Whether the promise of Suarez will result in a trophy laden career at Barça only time will tell.
Until then, Viva la Futbol!
