When I came here my dream was to play in the first squad
and I never imagined
I would experience everything that followed,
but I'm happy about all that's happened to me.
LEO MESSI FCB player I had to live in Barcelona
I ended up going through it all
because God wanted it
and I'm grateful.
ANDRÉS INIESTA FCB player Managing to stay for a long time in a club like this
is extremely difficult.
I had the enthusiasm, conviction and confidence
that I wanted to succeed at Barça,
whatever the cost.
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 Seeing my name as one of the world's best players
or being nominated Footballer of the Year
was unthinkable when I began at 16, 17 or 18.
We've overcome every barrier and dream one could have.
He was a true sportsman.
CARLES SANTACANA Historian He's a fan of all sports and plays them all.
He met other people
in places that were very important then:
the few gyms that existed in Barcelona.
People who were crazy about sport used to meet there.
They were looked upon as somewhat eccentric.
When Gamper announced he wanted to set up Barça,
twelve people responded to his call:
the club's founders.
EMMA GAMPER Joan Gamper's granddaughter He initially wanted to be the team's captain and play,
and later join the board, but not to be president.
He wanted to participate from a distance.
And if the club had problems,
he took over and got it back on track again.
He'd collect signatures or money
to keep the club afloat.
He still believed in amateur sport.
However he had founded a club that was growing bigger
and to move in higher places,
this step became inevitable,
as it was the direction football was heading to.
Those who see football as a religion
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 know that Barça is about more than playing football.
It teaches you a great deal about the sport,
but especially at a human level,
to think about your teammates
and the group before yourself.
Barça promotes these values: respect, caring,
humility, work, effort, sacrifice.
I arrived when I was 13
and was brought up here
LEO MESSI FCB player with the values of Barça and La Masia.
And more than just playing football,
they also educate you really well.
La Masia contributed a lot to my personality.
The things I've been able to grow up with,
ANDRÉS INIESTA FCB player in terms of respect, education,
humility, respecting your teammates,
were all about learning and having to improve each year.
Actually, there are jokes about the time
he was negotiating contracts with players
and he wanted to give them some "love-for-the-club" vitamins,
so that they'd ask for less money after taking them.
They once closed the ground.
JAUME DESCALS Former FCB member nº1 An English Navy squadron had come
with an English football team
and played against Barça.
The English anthem was played, with everybody standing,
and there was applause at the end,
but nobody stood up for the Spanish anthem,
so they close the ground for six months.
KING'S CUP FINAL 2011-12 Vicente Calderón Stadium, Madrid 25 May 2012
KING'S CUP FINAL 2008-09 Mestalla Stadium, Valencia 13 May 2009
JOAN GAMPER FUNERAL Barcelona 31 July 1930 It really shocked a lot of people.
If Gamper had thought that nobody would remember him,
it wasn't true since his funeral proved the opposite,
with an incredible number of people on the streets.
In terms of sport,
CARLES SANTACANA Historian the 1920s is known as Barça's first golden age,
because it actually won nearly everything from 1919 to 1929.
The number of trophies is truly impressive.
It was also famous for a few players:
Zamora debuted at the same time as the big player Samitier,
but others came later: Sagi, Platko,
very important names in the Club's history.
Barça was a club that reflected Catalan society,
so logically it was affected by the beginning of the Civil War.
Its institutions collapsed,
it membership decreased
and it underwent a financial crisis.
But above all, this great team,
which had practically won everything between 1919 and 1929,
stopped winning.
Barça was in a very delicate position,
because it had earlier clearly expressed
its support of democratic ideals
and the Catalan identity.
Catalan had been the official language of the club since 1921
and then suddenly in 1939 it finds itself under a dictatorship...
that wants to control not just Barça,
but all sporting clubs in Spain,
which is why the boards were directly named
by the Falangist National Sports Delegation.
The most obvious thing for Barça
was that it was somehow forced to show
that this Barça was nothing like the previous one,
so it had to renounce all the values
implicit in the club prior to the Civil War.
SALVADOR SADURNÍ FCB player 1961-76 A ball called "Nitran".
We had to paint them white to play at night
because there weren't any white balls.
All of them were the colour of leather.
They weighed 100 grams
and if they were kicked around over a wet pitch
by the end of the match
they weighed about a kilo or a kilo and a half.
We didn't have the gloves that they have now.
Sometimes I think: how has he lost the ball
when it's impossible with their gloves?
We had woollen gloves crocheted by my mother
and we only wore them when it rained.
Antonio was everybody's idol.
He was known as "the winged cat".
It's funny because he used to take his goalie's kit home
to be washed and ironed by his mother,
because we bought them ourselves.
Not like now when they give them away after the match.
If I'd done that, I wouldn't have had any on game day.
Kubala is one of the great Barça legends,
a very good player
and was also surrounded
by some very major non-sporting matters at the time,
given that he was essentially a refugee
CARLES SANTACANA Historian fleeing from the Eastern Bloc,
which was all about Cold War dynamics...
He came to Barça and really created a football revolution.
He controlled the ball really well, with both feet with amazing ease.
Sometimes he would sit on the ground like in the circus
and kick the ball upwards... And why?
FERRAN OLIVELLA FCB player 1956-69 Because Kubala could control the ball,
even in his sleep.
He showed people things they hadn't seen before.
People went to matches just to see Kubala play.
This was the five-cup Barça.
Everyone wanted to play in Barça then.
Kubala in the 1950s was one of the people who gave the club
RAMON BESA Journalist a football and social dimension that was above the norm.
All the most popular figures of the day
wanted to be connected to Kubala in some way.
Barça's culture has always been about play,
but the person who showed this on the field was a foreigner.
It's interesting that it happened with Kubala,
with Cruyff,
with Ronaldinho,
with Messi.
This is another thing that doesn't happen much in many clubs.
Barça can create a team,
but it's a foreigner who usually makes the difference,
soaking up a lot from Barça's game system and culture
and giving it a dimension
that would be difficult for a player from here.
And it's very much in line with Gamper's spirit.
CAMP NOU OPENING 24 September 1957
And also the European trophy at the time: the Latin Cup,
as there wasn't any European Cup.
Barça was the dominant force not only in Spain,
but also played a very major role in Europe.
Barça had reached an agreement with River Plate,
CARLES SANTACANA Historian which was the Argentine club
that owned the rights to Di Stéfano,
and what Madrid did was reach an agreement
with Bogotá's Millonarios,
the team Di Stéfano was playing in,
and I emphasis the words at the time, "in defiance".
The player could only be signed
from River Plate as they owned his registration rights,
so Barça was legally doing the right thing.
Di Stéfano comes to Barcelona
and trains with the players.
They want him to play in a friendly,
But joint action is taken by the Federation,
Real Madrid,
and the Falangist National Sports Delegation
to stop the process.
Then you can see
how the legislation on the entry of foreign players changes daily.
When Barça already has him signed,
the Federation decides that foreign players can't enter,
but revokes the order when he might go to Madrid.
There's a constant to and fro
in terms of legal actions in the summer of 1953
so that Di Stéfano can't join Barça.
Real Madrid's history is built on Di Stéfano.
Madrid's world-renowned history
is based on the five European Cups it wins with Di Stéfano.
LUIS SUÁREZ, GOLDEN BALL 1960
FERRAN OLIVELLA FCB player 1956-69 Barcelona had to sell Luisito Suárez,
which would be like us selling Messi now.
So let's say we don't have Messi.
Would we notice his departure?
Of course we would.
The same thing was true with Luisito Suárez.
A period then begins
CARLES SANTACANA Historian that is incredibly poor in sporting terms:
those 14 years without a league title, which can be explained
not only by some relatively poor decisions when it came to signings,
but also mainly because of a lack of finances.
It's our eternal rival that's winning everything
and it began with some government favours,
but that doesn't explain your mistakes.
It was a combination of things
and so many years of hardship
often produce a certain feeling of victimisation.
GERARD PIQUÉ FCB player Criticism always hurts.
It would be a worry if it didn't hurt.
If they criticise you and say that your work on the pitch
is not up to scratch or not the best in the world,
it's always upsetting,
but criticism makes you improve and want to get better.
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 People think that you have to win everything very easily,
that Barça has always been a winning club,
but it hasn't always been like that.
Barcelona El Prat Airport 23 August 1973
Cruyff was in this sense a revelation on the playing field,
CARLES SANTACANA Historian alongside his image as a young, modern player
who also had his mind on other things.
They asked him about divorce
and things that nobody had been able to talk about before here
and he spoke openly as a very liberal person
from that point of view.
Cruyff certainly had an image
and symbolised the Europe that we couldn't gain access to.
He gave us new hope
and so we started perfecting the type of football
that came from the Netherlands,
CARLES REXACH FCB player 1965-81 which Rinus Michels had already brought over
and incorporated here:
"Total Football",
with all us players running hard and applying pressure.
It was Cruyff who honed the system.
in that year when we swept the board.
From the beginning, when I started to play
in that season,
we didn't lose any matches to win the league title.
All the public was behind us,
All the press and all of Spain,
all the results went our way,
so the team was so confident
JOHAN CRUYFF FCB player 1973-78 that nobody could stop us.
I'd probably crack my head open if I tried that today,
but it was a cross that I received and I didn't know what to do.
I could do headers, but they weren't anything special,
so I turned and jumped
and was very lucky to strike the ball well into the goal.
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid 17 February 1974
Everyone talks about the before and after of that match.
It was very clearly a moment that had arrived after 14 years.
I think it was a great blow in all aspects.
Sant Jaume Square, Barcelona 14 May 1974
GARY LINEKER FCB player 1986-89
TERRY VENABLES FCB coach 1984-87
Absolutely! A lot of people I know
think that when Barça plays against Real Madrid,
it's really Catalonia versus Spain.
It's hard to explain,
you have to experience it and understand it.
The rivalry between Barça and Madrid
first began only in the sporting sense,
but it now obviously transcends things and is about politics.
There's always been a very strong rivalry
GERARD PIQUÉ FCB player between these two winning teams,
because they want to win
and always want to be on top.
Perhaps things have become a little more exaggerated in recent years,
but that often happens.
It's always been that way and I don't think it will ever change.
Definitely not.
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 It all wouldn't be as passionate
and perhaps we wouldn't be as "culé" as we are now,
because everyone sometimes needs a sense of animosity
to perhaps somehow improve.
You have to identify a rival to be competitive,
if not both competitiveness and competition would become meaningless.
So Madrid is obviously one of Barça's major rivals.
Just as Michels was in charge and did everything in the first year,
in the second year Cruyff began to skip training.
He would play on Sunday,
a massage on Monday,
who knows what on Tuesday,
a day off on Wednesday,
a bath and massage on Thursday...
He began losing his speed
SALVADOR SADURNÍ FCB player 1961-76 and if a player loses his speed he's gone.
And he didn't have the same motivation in his second and third year.
Watching Maradona was like watching a spectacle in itself.
RAMON BESA Journalist He made a mistake by not integrating into Catalan society.
He lived behind a wall in his house
as if was still in Argentina,
not as if he was in Barcelona.
So all his circle of friends and people were Argentine
and he thought that Catalan society had to somehow surrender to Maradona
and not Maradona integrating into Catalan society.
Even his agent, Jorge Cysterpiller, did things in a very curious way.
The difficulty he had in integrating
somehow forced him to seek comfort or refuge
in things like sex, drugs... ordinary things, in a way.
But I think he did it out of necessity.
He obviously received very bad advice
and fell into traps that a player of his class theoretically shouldn't have,
but later we also saw what happened with his life.
Everyone felt that Maradona would make history wherever he went.
He went to Naples and did so,
then he went to the Argentine team
and scored those famous goals against England.
He was an introverted 21- or 22-year-oId when he got here
and things didn't work out,
but people still worship Maradona a little
because of who he was and what he meant.
Tango's before my time.
I like to listen to it, but I'm not a big fan.
This and a pair of football boots.
It's true.
LEO MESSI FCB player It was the only thing I liked as a kid.
You could give me any present,
but I always asked for a ball.
I asked for one on my birthday, for Christmas, on Kings' Day...
Although I had, I always wanted another.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 1985-86 Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, Seville 7 May 1986
There was so much over-confidence
that it rubbed off on the players,
because it's not normal to go to a penalty shootout
and miss all five.
CARLES REXACH FCB coach & assistant 1987-96 / 2001-02 The goal was 7.32 metres wide then,
but it seemed to be 3 metres!
Duckadam was their goalie
and was known for stopping penalties.
JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANKO FCB player 1980-93 I don't know if I kicked it badly or he stopped it,
as it happened to all of us.
It's almost impossible that those five quality Barça players
couldn't kick a goal.
I think it's the biggest disappointment in Barça's history.
It really hurts. It hurts a lot.
You can be a good team,
GERARD PIQUÉ FCB player have great players,
but you don't always win.
You have to accept that another team may be better than you.
ANDRÉS INIESTA FCB player It seems a lot easier when the results are going your way,
but football or sport is not like that.
So when you don't win sometimes, when you lose a tittle,
when you lose a league,
it seems like the end of the world.
Hotel Hesperia, Barcelona 28 April 1988
The first squad of FCB
out of respect for its fans,
who have lost out most
JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANKO FCB player 1980-93 because of the disastrous management
of the president and board,
has been forced into making our thoughts public.
JOSEP LLUÍS NÚÑEZ FCB president 1978-2000 If a player doesn't want to be here, they can leave.
The doors are open, because our club is above all this and...
What does Barcelona want? To be the best.
JOHAN CRUYFF FCB coach 1988-96 So if you want to be the best, you have to act like the best.
If not, it makes no sense.
You can't act as a victim and be the best. That's impossible!
So you have to be in charge in every way
and to be in charge in football means having the ball.
It was considered a revolution at the time,
but it wasn't a revolution in my opinion,
you just needed people who could do this.
Did I invent the rondo?
Well, I always practised it because I hated running
and that's how it came about.
JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANKO FCB player 1980-93 We went from concentrating on being stronger
to being more creative and more technical,
without renouncing our physical training.
More importance was indeed placed on the ball, passing, controlling,
the speed of the game, the short game...
whereas before we were used to playing
more directly to reach the goal area immediately.
GARY LINEKER FCB player 1986-89
First, you look for the athlete,
CARLES REXACH FCB coach & assistant 1987-96 / 2001-02 then make him into a footballer.
But we changed all that,
because we first looked for the footballer,
then changed him into an athlete if we could.
It was at this point that Barça began to work with
and produce players who weren't very gifted physically,
but could play football.
Physically, he was a normal guy.
He wasn't quick or strong,
wasn't powerful at free kicks,
but he had vision and knew what to do at all times.
JOSÉ MARÍA BAKERO FCB player 1988-96 He was a bit grumpy in his early days.
He got angry with himself,
when things went well or when things went badly...
He was very demanding with himself.
"Why are we doing this?"
"Why are we playing like this?"
"What happened during that play?"
"Why don't we try this play?"
RAMON BESA Journalist He was a real sponge.
He went through a sponge stage in his life when he asked questions.
It was sometimes
an unstoppable team when it played at full speed and expression.
Later it could have lapses
and concede a goal or anything could happen,
but I've never seen any other team
with such blind faith or confidence in its game.
The pressure was on us,
because the Barça fans
were still scared of losing another final
RONALD KOEMAN FCB player 1989-95 like the one in Seville against Bucharest.
But we, and especially Johan,
were very confident that we could beat Sampdoria.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 1991-92 Wembley Stadium, London 20 May 1992
Tension is fine, but not nervousness.
Logically, everything around Barcelona in that final
had to do with being the victim...
Let's see if we lose, let's see who knows what...
So I told them this:
"I don't know how often you're going to play in a final, so enjoy it
and keep laughing not matter what the score."
There was extra time. I think it was at the 108-minute mark...
Obviously one of my skills is that I'm good at taking free kicks.
There was a free kick outside the goal area;
about 20 metres out, three or four metres or so from the 16-metre area...
So the three of us decided to make that play.
We noticed the defensive wall was quite close to the goal,
so we tried to draw one of the players out to increase the angle of the shot.
We decided it in a flash between the three of us.
The referee whistled a foul.
I felt as if I could kick a goal,
but of course you have to be lucky,
because normally the ball hits a defender coming out of the wall.
I struck the ball really well
and hard
towards the left-hand goalpost
and the goalie was surprised by its speed.
It's something that's really huge and hard to explain,
because winning such a major trophy
for the first time for Barcelona...
It's fantastic, unforgettable,
especially for me because I scored the only goal of the match.
We arrived at Barcelona airport
and there were so many people in the streets...
There was over a million people in the streets of Barcelona.
I also remember that we went back to Camp Nou
and there were still 60 or 70,000 people there.
DREAM TEAM TRIBUTE MATCH Camp Nou, Barcelona 10 March 1999 The Wembley hero: Ronald Koeman.
I couldn't have been happier that day.
Football gives you many things,
but I've never felt I'm special because I'm a footballer.
It's true that sometimes at a certain age
you can go a bit crazy,
but it's not really me
Sant Jaume Square, Barcelona 21 May 1992 to honestly think that we're gods or something special.
We've simply been lucky to be here and to have won,
especially that first European Cup.
Long live Catalonia!
Long live Barça!
Citizens of Catalonia! Now we've got it here!
Long live Barça
and long live Catalonia!
LOUIS VAN GAAL FCB coach 1997-00 / 2002-03
RAMON BESA Journalist It's about rationalisation on the ground.
There's a square ground in his square head:
positional play, field distribution...
He's the perfect schoolteacher.
As a teacher, I think he's indispensable.
Camp Nou, Barcelona 24 June 2001
When he announces that he's leaving Barça,
he thinks he can play at Juve, in an elite team,
and then finds himself playing with Brescia,
a team that's somehow like saying:
"Wow, you left Barça to end up in Brescia? No way!"
It was all about contractual circumstances.
Finally, Juve pulls out of an agreement to sign him
and he ends up playing in Rome.
GRAHAM HUNTER Journalist
Next Tuesday, Josep Guardiola Will make the trip from Brescia to Rome
for a second drug test after testing positive to Nandrolone
after the Lazio-Brescia game.
TVC 6 December 2001 It's another step in his difficult, lengthy battle to prove his innocence.
His first reaction was despair; he couldn't believe it.
But from then on he tried his best to seek the truth.
He said he hadn't taken anything and the body itself produced it.
He became an expert in the production of Nandrolone
and didn't stop until he reached the courts, where he was acquitted.
It's a question of personality and character
PAU GASOL FCB basketball player 1999-01 in the person and player,
your ambition and appetite to remain at a certain level
and do whatever it takes to stay there or keep improving.
So for me it's a question of mentality and attitude:
how you act, how you deal with things,
how you focus and the priority you give to this
and what you're willing to sacrifice to achieve these aims.
I demand a lot from myself and then compete against others
and this motivates me because I'm a competitive person.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS Camp Nou, Barcelona 15 June 2003
This can be a great day if it leads to the change
that I believe the club needs.
I'll do everything I can to bring joy to everybody.
Ronaldinho's first years in Barcelona were really amazing
and he sort of ended that situation that we had over several years,
especially after the Van Gaal era.
These were very difficult periods after Cruyff
and it was really like a rebirth,
and the person who made it greater was Ronaldinho.
The stadium was full
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 and people were starting to wear Barça shirts again.
He was a magical player,
capable of doing things we'd never seen in the history of football.
He did some really amazing stuff,
some dribbling on the wing
that brought people to their feet.
That positive glow and laugh and smile of his were hard to resist for many people.
LEO MESSI FCB player Different, small...
Truth is I don't really remember,
but it must have been
in my second year here in Barcelona.
CARLES FOLGUERA La Masia director His desire to want to be what he ultimately became
was so strong
that it gave him a special value,
an enormous talent, a desire to win
and play competitive sport as if it were a game,
a game that he always wants to win,
but something that deep down inside is really fun for him.
It's true that Barça from the start said that it was relying on him
and wanted him and that in the long-term
he had to become that amazing player
you could already see in those videos
when he was 10 or 11.
CARLES REXACH FCB coach & assistant 1987-96 / 2001-02 A guy says to me:
"There's a kid who plays really well and stuff..."
The usual stuff like: "This boy's a phenomenon."
Another guy says: "Sure, but he's very small."
Then another: "He's a table footy player."
So everyone kind of claimed him.
Everyone recognised his talent, which was dribbling...
"There's no doubts about this guy, you can already sign him."
"He's out of this world; this guy's from another galaxy..."
He did different things. He was different.
All of him. Skilled, fast...
He looked so dull and lifeless off the field,
but when he was on the ground he became another person.
Leo's a guy who came in
and was introverted, shy and couldn't play...
The club helped him medically because he could barely stretch himself...
His family was in Argentina.
He could've been vulnerable.
Given that he didn't have his brothers around him or his mother close by...
It's normal that things would have been difficult for him.
It was hard because it was a big change.
I was 13 and left everything behind,
my family, my friends, my country.
Truth is it was difficult.
I was lucky to have landed in Barcelona, in La Masia,
on a team with great kids
who treated me really well from the start.
I went to school with the kids from La Masia.
I practically spent all day with them
and that made things easier for me.
The one great positive thing about Leo Messi
is that he fought for what he really wanted
when nobody could really see it.
He fought a lot and dug his heels in
and became successful:
success in searching, in dreaming...
And why shouldn't a boy dream even though he's away from his family?
MICHAEL MILANI WARSHAW Manhattan Kickers F.C. player
GUS MAHLER Manhattan Kickers F.C. player
NICOLAI PERALTA Manhattan Kickers F.C. player
ANDRÉS INIESTA FCB player It's my life. I've grown up with it.
I love waking up to it every day...
As a good "culé", and as a person who's been here since he was 12,
I think it's an emotion.
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 Look how shit-scared I am in this photo.
I'm frightened...
You feel scared when you sign with Barça; everything seems so big.
The club's greatness really overwhelms you.
This photo is from my early days, from the first photos of me in Barça.
I think we've retained a lot of things
GERARD PIQUÉ FCB player from when we were so young and innocent.
You learn a lot from life along the way,
but you also retain many hopes and dreams you had at that age,
which have grown and supported you, and many that have come true.
About 50 to 60 kids are signed from these 8,000.
We're talking about a massive filtering process,
and not only of those kids that Barça goes to see,
but also those presented by parents
who believe their children have got enough talent to get into Barça.
There are countless letters from kids and parents,
thousands of videos on YouTube
with footage of athletes...
CARLES FOLGUERA La Masia director They see it as a unique opportunity,
because if Barça is on the lookout for talent,
then why can't it be my son?
You have to leave a lot of people behind along the way.
And when you do let go of one,
JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANKO FCB youth program director 2005-10 the father and mother appear,
as well as the kid
and sometimes the agent at the last minute.
And naturally the father asks why,
it affects the mother a lot more
and the kid ends up crying.
Not everyone manages to make it here.
It's difficult and it's even harder to remain.
Barça's like that, a pyramid on top of which the chosen
or the luckier ones remain.
And it's cruel because you're a kid,
Still green.
Your emotions are really sensitive.
They teach you a little about the realities of life,
how competitive it is, those who'll be there next year...
It's really tough.
His father and his agent said:
CARLES REXACH FCB coach & assistant 1987-96 / 2001-02 "Hey you, they're messing with me."
So we had to do something
and I tried to calm things down by saying:
"Don't worry, I'll fix things up quickly."
So we grab the nearest piece of paper and I write down
that "as technical director of FCB
I agree to sign Messi as long as we discuss the amounts, etc."
So I sign it
and for my sake had to get down to work.
Basically it happened like that, but never thinking
that this napkin would become so important.
Remember my name: Leo Messi.
I was already happy to be here with my two companions
and it's a very special day for me.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2005-06 Stade de France, Paris 17 May 2006
Welcome to this season,
welcome to your home.
Fasten your seatbelts because we're going to have fun.
Long live Barça, Long live Catalonia and good luck.
GRAHAM HUNTER Journalist
GARY LINEKER FCB player 1986-89
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2008-09 Olympic Stadium, Rome 27 May 2009
There was a person named Johan Cruyff
who arrived and changed the philosophy of playing football.
He wanted to be a protagonist, get the ball,
XAVI HERNÁNDEZ FCB player 1991-2015 maintain possession, dominate, play attacking,
attractive football, in which people saw themselves reflected
in the sense that we really dominated the game.
And we've been practicing this for 20 or 30 years,
ever since he arrived as coach.
ANDRÉS INIESTA FCB player It's not only about just winning, but also how we go about it,
and so people admired and still admire us for that.
The key to success
CARLES FOLGUERA La Masia director of this generation of athletes,
some of whom have been there two or three years,
like Iniesta, Messi, Cesc, or Jordi Alba and Víctor Valdés...
Many of them had played for the same team
in lower levels, as kids or juniors...
I mean, they knew each other at the age of 13 or 14,
they had suffered hardships, they had won some championships,
and this unites them. That's the key.
GRAHAM HUNTER Journalist
RAMON BESA Journalist Oh, absolutely, he felt slighted,
he felt hurt because of Barça. They rejected him.
He lost a battle and that caused him great frustration.
Madrid signs up Mourinho
to finish with Barça, not to make Madrid better.
That's the great contradiction of Madrid:
it doesn't know how to stop Barça's growth,
so it signs up the person it thinks has the formula to stop Barça.
The footage of you looking to poke Tito Vilanova in the eye,
is this part of the philosophy that you say you're teaching in football?
Me?
Yes.
"Pito" Vilanova?
Yes, Tito Vilanova.
I don't know what you're talking about.
The question you're asking me
about "Pito" Vilanova or whatever his name is...
no, I don't know his name.
No, I don't have anything to say...
That's for the referee to say, or the fourth referee,
or the TV cameras...
I have nothing to say.
One day, not here, but outside,
a situation will arise that won't be any good.
Things will get nasty one day.
When it comes to football,
CARLES REXACH FCB player 1965-81 there's that saying that I use a lot:
"It's better to win roughly than lose cleanly."
It's like that in football.
It's like saying: "We're in today's world, Let's win however we can."
It's a bit like that.
So what happens?
Some coaches even today say about matches:
"We can't win with the referee they've given us today!"
You have a game plan that the referee doesn't let you implement.
Bang, he's gone and said it.
Do you see?
Given that Mr Mourinho has addressed me in a familiar manner,
I'll do the same.
He called me Pep so I'll call him José.
I don't know which is Mr José's camera...
It must be all of these...
Tomorrow at 8.45pm we'll face each other here on the ground.
He's already won off the pitch.
I'll give him his particular Champions off the field.
He can take it home and enjoy it with all his others.
In this room, he's the effing boss, the effing master,
who knows most in this world.
I don't want to compete with him even for a moment.
You'll be the effing master here, but I challenge you on the field.
So he challenges Madrid on the field and is lucky enough to win.
Why?
Why expel Pepe?
Why?
That's when Mourinho's "whys" appear,
because on Mourinho's theoretically ideal stage,
which is body-against-body, Guardiola also wins.
GARY LINEKER FCB player 1986-89
REAL MADRID 2 - FC BARCELONA 6 Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid 2 May 2009
FC BARCELONA 5 - REAL MADRID 0 Camp Nou, Barcelona 29 November 2010
GERARD PIQUÉ FCB player I think the two feed off each other.
Barça without Madrid might not be as good,
and the same goes for Madrid without Barça.
When you have a team like Madrid in your league competition,
it makes you always want to go to the limit
and win every game to win league titles,
so that when you go to Europe you've already acquired
this mentality and this intensity to win games.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2010-11 Wembley Stadium, London 28 May 2011
ÉRIC ABIDAL FCB player 2007-13 To describe Carles' gesture of giving me the armband...
there are really no words.
They're the sorts of things you don't see every day in team sports.
This is what Barça is all about;
it's more than a club, more than a family.
I proved that I was a fighter
and that's what allowed me to have the strength
to try once again to overcome my ordeal.
As I said, the important thing is to fight.
We should never give up, no matter what happens in our lives.
We should make the most of our opportunities, whether good or bad.
That's what life is all about.
GRAHAM HUNTER Journalist
I think everybody got fed up with Guardiola,
because he was so demanding,
RAMON BESA Journalist in terms of diet, training, match preparation...
This self-demanding culture
ends up becoming unbearable at some point.
He realised that he'd also lost his influence
on Messi and the players, with those talks of his.
When you have to come up with a new one every day,
they end up not having the same effect,
so when that happened he left.
Camp Nou, Barcelona 27 April 2012
The reason is simple: it's been four years
and time wears everything down and I'm worn out.
I feel all empty and need to fill myself up again.
It's been a high demand.
I need to experience that life, that passion,
that energy that's so necessary
to motivate so many other things, especially your players.
I want to dedicate this title to Tito Vilanova,
my friend, my companion, my assistant.
This one's for you, kid. It's for you.
Their relationship was that of equals.
They made all their decisions by mutual agreement,
so there wasn't that hierarchy of first and second.
He was an atypical assistant coach
JORDI ROURA FCB youth program director 2014-15 with a strong character,
a direct man, a frank man
and a man who told you things straight if he had to.
And I especially think he was a brave man.
You need to have a certain type of courage to join Barcelona...
Okay, not courage, but you can't be scared of losing
or making decisions, and he wasn't scared at all.
SPANISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2012-13 Camp Nou, Barcelona 19 May 2013
KING'S CUP FINAL 2014-15 Camp Nou, Barcelona 30 May 2015
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2014-15 Olympic Stadium, Berlin 6 June 2015
SPANISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2014-15 Camp Nou, Barcelona 23 May 2015
GARY LINEKER FCB player 1986-89
ÉRIC ABIDAL FCB player 2007-13 Barcelona is more than a club,
because of all that it represents,
both professionally and at an amateur club level.
Barça tries to establish itself throughout the world
to leave its mark:
how it sees things, how it educates, how it plays football...
Trying to put a little of Catalonia in the world
so that people abroad can feel how things are here.
That's why Barça is great
and will continue to be more than a club.
GRAHAM HUNTER Journalist
LEO MESSI FCB player It's amazing and nice
to live what I'm living,
being on a ground,
creating a play, scoring a goal
and seeing so many people applauding or saying my name.
It's really nice.
The views and opinions expressed in this film were freely made by each person
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I have several.
When I was in Rome, the World Cup Final,
in London,
also the King's Cup at Calderón...
I have several.
The first year of my career,
when I was an 11-year-oId youngster,
I earned 4,000 pesetas,
my first salary.
I made sure to get my mum a toaster,
as we didn't have one at home.
I hope that in a few years time,
some of us can be a part of that history.