- Address: Barcelona
- Country: Spain
- Capacity: 54,000
- Opened: 20 May 1929
- Main use: Football
- Tenants: FC Barcelona (football)
Extra stadium info – Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
The stadium opened as the Estadi de Montjuïc. It became the home of FC Barcelona, the second sports club with 100 million followers on its main social media page. They moved to the venue in 2023. FC Barcelona was founded in 1899. In 1929, they were crowned Spanish football champions for the first time in their history. In 2010, FC Barcelona became the second club with 20 Spanish top-flight football league titles.
International trophies
In 1992, FC Barcelona were crowned European champions for the first time in their history. They won the UEFA Champions League, the European football championship for clubs, three times between 2006 and 2011. FC Barcelona, nicknamed Barça, were crowned world champions several times. They won their first-ever world championship title in 2009 after beating the Argentine side Estudiantes de La Plata. Barça drew an average home attendance of 78,000 during that domestic league season.
Real Madrid
The fierce rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid is world famous. Any football match between the two football giants is known as El Clásico. The matches between both clubs usually are among the most viewed annual sporting events. El Clásico is sometimes identified with opposing political positions, with Real Madrid viewed as representing Spanish nationalism and FC Barcelona viewed as representing Catalan nationalism.
The youth academy
In 2010, FC Barcelona created history when three football players who came through its youth academy were chosen as the three best football players in the world. Those players were Andrés Iniesta Luján, Lionel Andrés Messi and Xavier Hernández Creus. Iniesta left FC Barcelona in 2018 for the Japanese club Vissel Kobe. In 2021, Xavier Hernández Creus became the manager of FC Barcelona. He is commonly known as Xavi. The former Spanish midfielder ended his professional football career in 2019 with Al-Sadd from Qatar.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is widely regared as one of the best football players of all time. The Argentine football legend was born in Rosario in 1987. He became one of the first people in the world with 100 million followers on his or her social media page. Messi played hundreds of matches for FC Barcelona before he left the club in 2021. Messi scored hundreds of goals for the club from Catalonia before he signed with the French football club Paris Saint-Germain. In 2023, he signed with Inter Miami from the United States.
