It takes a lot to become the most popular football/soccer team in the world. To be what FC Barcelona has become, being current Copa del Rey champions, winning 21 La Liga, 26 Copa del Rey, 10 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies, takes a lot of hard work, dedication and passion. FC Barcelona has a long history of being passionate about their football team because of the history behind it. Since the club’s birth in 1899, it has always been a symbol of the Catalan region in Spain. 
In 1923, the football club and the people of Barcelona fought against a political and military uprising by using the club as a way to get their message heard. On June 14th, 1925, the crowd in the stadium jeered the Spanish national anthem and then gave ovation to God Save the King in a spontaneous protest against Miguel Primo de Rivera‘s dictatorship. This was a big moment for the people of Catalonia, but when Franco came along after Rivera, things got worse for FC Barcelona. When the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, Franco was brutal against the people of Catalan. Even after the war, he went as far as banning the Catalan flag and language in Spain. FC Barcelona, being the main football club in the Catalan region, were not big fans of Franco, and Franco was not a big fan of them. In fact, it is rumored that Franco “reminded” players and staff on the FC Barcelona team that they were lucky to even be playing. Infamous matches, where FC Barcelona lost by huge margins, were rumored to be fixed by Franco and his regime. As time went on, and the Franco dictatorship remained in power, Camp Nou was built.
As it stands now, it is the biggest stadium in Europe and one of the biggest in the world. After Franco’s dictatorship ended in 1974, Spain went through a change in government and welcomed democracy. This meant that all of the laws that Franco had in place preventing Catalan culture in Spain were no more, and the people of Barcelona could speak Catalan and hang their Catalan flags proudly. This also gave FC Barcelona a chance to represent the Catalan culture more freely and they took that with pride. Josep Lluís Núñez became the first president of FC Barcelona after the Franco dictatorship after he was elected by club members. He was there for 22 years and saw great success and also founded La Masia, which is Barcelona’s football youth academy. Starting in 1988, what was known as the dream team was formed under manager Johan Cruyff. This dream team won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 through 1994 and included players such as Pep Guardiola, Ronald Koeman and Txiki Begiristain. After this success though, things began to decline in the late 1990s, which eventually lead to the resigning of Núñez in 2000. The start of the new millennium started just as bad as the last one ended, and FC Barcelona was not doing very well. Joan Gaspart was the new president, and in his three years of power FC Barcelona he saw managers and players come and go with minimal success. He resigned after the 2003 season and made way for Joan Laporta who saw much more success then Joan Gaspart. In his time as president, he signed one of the best players in the world, Ronaldinho and won La Liga and Supercopa de España in 2004-05 and 2005-06. The next season though saw no success, and eventually lead to the hiring of new manager Pep Guardiola. He started his new duties by letting go of Ronaldinho and started building his team around Lionel Messi.
In his time as manager, FC Barcelona found the most success in the history of the club. They won La Liga 3 times, the King’s Cup 2 times, the Champions League 2 times, the Spanish Super Cup 3 times, the European Super Cup 2 times and the Club World Cup 2 times. Although Pep Guardiola saw all of this success as team manager of FC Barcelona, he decided to leave following the 2011 season and the club was taken over by Tito Vilanova. Vilanova has also seen tremendous success so far as team manager, as he has held the team on the top of the league standings for 26 weeks, recording only one loss in 23 games. FC Barcelona is currently one of the best teams in the world and it is great to see where they have come from to where they are now. After what happend during the Franco regime and what the people of not only Barcelona, but all of the Catalan region went through, it is interesting to see how passionate they have become. They see the players of FC Barcelona as Catalan soliders and are very welcoming to anyone that comes in and plays for their great team. Stephan van Uijtregt, a professor at CEA Global Education in Barcelona, Spain offers some more insight on FC Barcelona.
Being in Barcelona 