Barcelona Sporting Club
Foundation
The club was founded May 1, 1925, in the house of Spanish emigrant from Barcelona, Spain Eutimio Pérez and named after FC Barcelona. It was during the 1940's when Barcelona ascension and popularity within Ecuador started to grow, in part thanks to the marvelous games against Deportivo Cali of Colombia in Barcelona's First International friendly game and the Amazing win against Millonarios of Colombia in an International friendly game. At the time Millonarios was considered back then the best team in the world, during a time period known as El Dorado. The Colombian team had 3 Argentinean world class figures, Alfredo Di Stéfano (before moving to Real Madrid), Adolfo Pedernera and Nestor Raul Rossi. The game took Place in the Guayaquil, Ecuador, Home City of Barcelona, and in front of 30.000 fans and an intensely disputed game, Barcelona beat Millonarios 3-2 twice.
First Match: 15 June, 1925 vs C.S. Ayacucho (1-0)
First International Match: 19 March, 1931 vs Deportivo Cali SSD (4-4)
The 1970s
Now, Fast Forward to 1971, Barcelona had already established as Ecuador's most popular team, winning several local championships, but had still failed to make an impact in the South American Club Tournament Libertadores Cup, usually exiting in the first rounds. But this year was different, with a new young and visionary club President, they managed to hire a few key International players, among them were former Brazilian international Jose "Pepe" Paes, former Peruvian International and World Cup player Pedro "Perico" Leon and Ecuadorian Super Star Alberto Spencer (Alberto Spencer had played the last 10 years for Peñarol of Uruguay, winning several local and international titles, and is also the all time Goal scorer of the Libertadores Cup with 54 goal, even above Pelé). With this team, they managed to reach the semifinals and achieved perhaps their most famous victory in the club history when the beat the 3 time Libertadores Cup Champion Argentine team, Estudiantes de la Plata in their own soil 1-0. What made this victory more amazing was the fact that in the last 3 tournaments the Argentine team had never lost a home game. Another curious fact of that game was that the player that scored the winning goal for Barcelona was a Spanish Catholic Priest that played soccer as a hobby, named Juan Manuel "El Cura" Bazurco. In the End, they would fail to reach the finals, but had already made their mark on the continental level.
The following year, in 1972, they kept the same base of player and reach once again the Semifinals, but again came short of reaching the championship game.
After 2 great years, Barcelona suddenly fell under a dry spell, that would last 8 years, in which they failed to win a local tournament or qualify for continental competition.
The 1980s
Meet the 80's, this decade was rich in local championships for Barcelona, winning their most amount of Local titles in those 10 years and reaching the Libertadores Cup Semifinals two more times in 1986 and 1987. Also in 1987, they would finally finish construction of their new stadium with a capacity for 55.000 people, all seated, It was named Estadio Monumental.
The glory decade: the 1990s
Enter the 90's and perhaps the team's most brilliant era. In 1990, under a new president, and with the firm intention of conquering the Libertadores Cup, they club acquired key International players: former Argentine international and World Cup champion in 1986 Marcelo Trobbiani, former Uruguay International and Copa America Champion in 1983 Alberto "Beto" Acosta and Uruguayan Marcelo Saralegui. With this team and a batch of young as well as experienced Ecuadorian players, they played a fantastic tournament and dramatically beat in a penalty shoot-out River Plate of Argentina, to finally reach the long awaited Final. Unfortunately they would come short, losing against Olimpia (Paraguay) 2-0 in the away game, and tying 1-1 in the home game, were many considered the referee affected the outcome in favor of the Paraguayan team. But with the runner up title, they would finally be considered among the best and most respected teams in South America.
In 1992, they put together another great team, beating the previous champions Colo Colo (Chile) and reaching the Libertadores Cup Semifinals once again, but losing against the Powerful Brazilian Team of Sao Paulo, who at the time was coached by Tele Santana, and among their stars had players such as Zetti, Cafu, Rai, Muller and Palinha, that same team would become tournament Champion and beat F.C Barcelona in the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo.
1993 would become a bittersweet year, due to high demand for tickets and because the Copa America was being organized by Ecuador, they decided to expand the stadium to give it a capacity of 75.000 people, all seated and it was renamed to Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo. During the Stadiums re-inauguration, Pelé was quoted as saying that: "Brazil had the biggest stadium in the world (Maracana) but Ecuador had the prettiest". But it would also be one of the saddest in the team's history. On December 25th, three days after Barcelona had achieved the second place in the Ecuadorian league achieving a spot in the next Libertadores cup thanks to three goals of Ecuadorian born striker, Carlos Munoz he died in a car accident at the age of 29.
After winning the Ecuadorian league title in 1997 (their last to date) with the help of such players as Bolivian international Marco "El Diablo" Etcheverry, Colombian international Anthony "El Pipa" De Avila and Ecuadorian international Agustin "Tin" Delgado (Recently played for Barcelona SC), they would go on to play the Libertadores Cup of 1998 with mostly old players that seemed to be on their way out, but against all odds, they would reach their second Libertadores Cup Final, losing both championship games against Brazilian team Vasco Da Gama, 2-0 in the away game and 2-1 in the home game. Also at the end of 1998, the world famous Spanish Football Magazine Don Balon would release their annual top 40 ranking clubs in the world, on which Barcelona S.C. ranked #10, now becoming a world class club.
Unfortunately in the coming years Barcelona S.C. would once again fall into a dry spell, but in the last 2 years with 2 second places in the Ecuadorian league, they seem to once again try to reach their former level.
Present
Barcelona have established themselves as one of the most popular teams in Ecuador and have the most Local Leagues, winning it 13 times, and is the only Ecuadorean team to have ever reached the Libertadores Cup finals, and doing it twice. The Team Colors are yellow, black and red. They used to play in the stadium known as Estadio Modelo Alberto Spencer, but they moved to a new ground in 1987, the Estadio Monumental de Barcelona (named since 1997 Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo). Their first game was against Peñarol, a famous team from Montevideo. The club has 97,745 registered members. Some of their rivals in Ecuador are Club Sport Emelec, Club Deportivo El Nacional and Liga Deportiva Universitaria from Quito.
Barcelona have farm teams, it is composed of the two divisions under age 18 and under age 20. The Club Atlético Guayaquil "(Barcelona SC "B")" Plays in a lower-division league known as Segunda Categoría "A". The players of the Club Atlético Guayaquil are trained by Peruvian manager Hernán Saavedra so they can later play for Barcelona's main team.
