 FC Barcelona is one of the biggest football clubs of all time and that comes with a lot of great moments. A surprising amount of insane ones as well as several scandals and even an assassination. From MSN to Pep Guardiola's Barcelona past the 2009 Champions League mess and Messi's napkin signing all the way to the fight that ended Matadona's Barça career. This is the FC Barcelona Iceberg. In partnership with Dan Hilton from the Barcelona podcast I put together some of the craziest stories and most incredible moments from Barcelona's very long history. So sit back, relax and let's talk Barça. Now there were a ton of different topics that we could have covered for this video and I'm sure we're going to miss some of them. So let us know down below if there's anything that you want us to include if we do an addition to this Iceberg. But I thought to start with none other than the greatest attacking trio in FC Barcelona and probably world history, Messi, Suarez and Neymar. I really don't think you can speak about Barcelona's recent history without mentioning these three players. But the way they came together is pretty interesting to say the least. Coming into the 2013-14 season, Messi had already cemented himself as one of, if not the best player in the world. Three Balandors about to win his fourth Balandor, six LaLiga titles and two Champions League trophies with pretty much a different front three each season. However, Barça wanted to surround La Pula with other special talents that summer and where better to go than Brazil to do so, where they could find one of the most exciting and promising players in the world. So 88 million euros later, Neymar Jr. was a Barcelona player. However the team was not perfect yet, it wasn't there and you could tell they lost the league title race to Atleti and they were knocked out by them in the Champions League as well. The side needed more and so they took advantage of the four month ban on top of Luis Suarez's head for biting Chiellini and signed him. The rest is history. In their first season together, the trio won the treble and created a relationship that is seldom seen in today's footballing world or at least in today's Barcelona. Though those three South Americans were only together for three years at Barça, they will live on forever in Barcelona history. Goals, magic and excellence, they all combined incredibly well and complemented each other's abilities perfectly. There will probably never be a better front three and that's why I believe that is the best trio in footballing history and the best place to start this iceberg because Barcelona would not have won that last treble without them and who knows where they would have been if they didn't make those signings all the way back then. Now if you love MSN check out this poster I made for them on my website Roludesigns.com to show your support for me and to help out the channel. But if it wasn't for Messi, this whole MSN would never have came to be and if it wasn't for a napkin and one of the greatest scouts in Barça history, we would have never gotten him in the first place. Thanks to the keen eye of one Josep Maria Minguea, the same man who is partially responsible for the signing of another diminutive Argentinian who is pretty good with his hands, the 13 year old Messi from Rosario got a chance at a trial at FC Barcelona. However, despite the high praise from Minguea, the Barcelona board were just not convinced. Minguea had been connected to the transfer of Raquelme which had failed a few years earlier and the ending to Matador's transfer was such a disaster as well and so they weren't very trusting of his words. So Minguea took it into his own hands to make sure Messi came to Spain and he paid for Messi and his father's flight himself. However, when he finally got to Barcelona, not everything was magical and in fact, more problems were arising because Messi's talents were not only on display for Barcelona but now for every single scout in Spain. After Messi performed well in a friendly for the team, the Barcelona board was, guess what, still not convinced by Messi and they were still dragging their feet. However, Minguea was able to convince another man in Charlie Roussac to take control of the signing of Lionel Messi. Despite him not getting the green light from the Barcelona board, Roussac took the Messi's out to lunch at a tennis club and secured the signing of Messi's future on none other than a napkin that they had found at their table. Now you'd think the infallibly binding legal nature of a napkin would have sealed the deal. However, Jorge Messi still wanted some more for his son as you would expect but the Barcelona board weren't giving it. And this is where our third player in the story comes in, Johan La Cueva, who as a director general of Barcelona had a little bit more power and a little bit more money and was finally able to convince Jorge Messi to stay in Barcelona by paying for Messi's first few doses of growth hormone that kept Messi and Barcelona long enough for the Barcelona board to be convinced by this kid finally and everything was right in the world again. Messi was a Barcelona player and we're here today with all that magic because of those three men that tried so incredibly hard to sign Messi on a napkin. Now it's scary to think what FC Barcelona would have been without Lionel Messi, but it's also worrying to think about what modern day Barcelona would have been like if Pep Guardiola would have never become manager. Pep Guardiola became Barcelona's manager after only a year spent managing the B team. Today he would have probably been considered nowhere near qualified enough to take over the reins of Barcelona's first teams. After all, Csabi spent two and a half years managing in Qatar and that was one of the strongest arguments against him coming in. However, the 37 year old Pep Guardiola at the time only two years out from his playing days would come in with a bang, immediately announcing upon his appointment that first team stars Ronaldinho, Eto and Deco were no longer part of his plans. The board of Barcelona showed full confidence in Pep almost immediately, getting rid of everyone he asked except Eto who was allowed to stay. But the rest is pretty much history. In four years, Pep Guardiola won 14 trophies at Barcelona and created possibly the greatest team to ever grace a football pitch. That team, though filled with stars in their own right, forfeited their egos and desires to follow the instruction of Guardiola. They worked together to perfect his positional play model, where his players would use their football intelligence to create overloads on the ball, ensuring that there would always be an option to move the ball out to the wing backs or an unmarked man in the midfield. Their perfection on the ball saw that club win two Champions League titles in four years and three La Liga titles while they were at it. However, it also created an idea, an idea that kind of doomed Pep and Barcelona at the time. See, so much perfection created an expectation of perfection, always from Pep's Barcelona. This meant that the historically toxic Spanish media and disastrously political leadership of FC Barcelona would continuously put pressure on Pep's head for every single little misstep, every lack of perfection, every not-for-nil victor. The reality was that football was changing and adapting to better counteract Pep's tactics. Teams sat back more and held a very solid shape in their own final third. That's one of the reasons Jose Mourinho's teams were so successful against Pep. Mourinho's wins, though few in number relative to Pep's, as Mourinho only won three of 15 matches against him, while Pep won seven, highlighted to sides a way to play that could be successful against Pep Guardiola teams. Now Pep would eventually adapt to this, but all of this stress, the calls of a lack of perfection in the few moments where he faltered, weighed on him greatly and made him want to leave Barcelona. Similar to the way Csabi has done it this season, Pep came out midway through the 11-12 season and said that he was going to leave Barcelona at the end of that year, and he did. Though we still remember and highlight Pep Guardiola's years at Barcelona as the greatest years of every coach ever, it only lasted four years, but those four years were something special. However, there is one matchup during Pep's reign that I consider to be really ridiculous to re-watch today, and that was the Champions League semi-final matchup between Chelsea and Barcelona. They were outrageous calls for and against both teams in both legs of the matchup, so I thought I would let someone who was watching Barcelona at the time and living through this take it away. So, Dan from the Barcelona podcast, let's hear what you have to say about this. Hey Robbie, so I am getting a little jealous of you getting to talk about the Guardiola teams when I live through it as a Barcelona crazed teenager and young 20-something. People ask me who my favorite player is, and yeah, Messi has given the most moments the highest highs. Before I get done saying Messi, I always make sure to say, yeah, but also I understand Nesta and Tarion Ri. And it's almost a shame that aside from the World Cup 2010 winner, the biggest in Nesta moment of all time, his other big moment, a goal against Chelsea in the semi-finals of the 2009 Champions League in the 93rd minute, the goal that sent Barcelona to the final on away goals. It's remembered as much for Nesta's moment that it is for the ridiculous number of controversies and wild refereeing that occurred. It was easily the worst night of referee Tom Henning Averbo's career. Eric Avrilal was sent off in the match to the red card, but Averbo had sided with Barcelona in some other moments that are still being talked about, especially by Chelsea fans. Did Dani Alves bring down Florent Meluda inside the box or outside the box? Did Avrilal bring down Dragba? Did Gerard Piquet commit a handball? Did Samo Ato commit a handball? All of those decisions went Barcelona's way, and due to this wonderful goal by Anderson Nesta, the one that I've had this poster up behind my desk for all these years, Barca snuffed by Chelsea and moved on in the Champions League. Time moves moments like this down the iceberg as younger and younger fans see it as history instead of their own memories. But I'd say this is still in Tier 1. It had everything you'd want in a Tier 1 story. As a clumb-defining moment. Controversy, check. Big game stakes, check. A legend doing a legend thing, definitely check. And while that moment could have been very negative, the next thing that you're talking about, Robbie, is definitely negative. Doing the podcast for all these years, I always hoped that Bartomeo and the financial issues weren't going to be that big of a story, but unfortunately, Bartomeo might be a name that the casual Barcelona fans know decades from now for all the wrong reasons. Now, I've done a lot of ignoring Barcelona's financial disaster that they are in today and have been in for several years. But that is mostly all thanks to the work of Josep Maria Bartomeu. Growing up as part of the FC Barcelona Basketball Academy, Bartomeo would go on to earn a business degree and then build a pretty successful company all while growing his connections within the FC Barcelona sphere of influence. After several years of political maneuvering, sacking, allegations firing, Bartomeo somehow found himself as the president of the club. All you really need to know is that Bartomeo's progression to that position of president wasn't exactly the cleanest of any president ever. However, in January of 2014, Bartomeo found himself there nonetheless. That summer, the squad would make some of the wisest signings in recent years, bringing in Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitich, but also a certain pairing of Marc Andrejter Stegen and Claudio Bravo. With these reinforcements, the club would win their second treble in six years that next season and reign supreme with the newly appointed president garnering much of the glory. However, his transfer perfection and European success would end there. In 2017, PSG would meet Neymar's insane release clause, and everything would go downhill from there very quickly. That influx of money from Neymar's sale would be used so poorly that the club is still recovering from those decisions today. 135 million for Coutinho. 135 million for 20-year-old Dembele. 120 million for Antoine Griezmann. Over the next three seasons, Barcelona's money was burned on transfers that reeked of a desire to fill Neymar's shoes, sell jerseys, and bring back glory. All while the backline and midfields began to show its age. It felt like Bartomeo threw money at any exciting forward he could and hoped to make strategic, cheap signings to fill in all of the other positions. And of course, basically none of them worked. Even when he made signings that were somewhat decent, like Frankie Dayong or Clement Langley, they would be offered ludicrous salaries that would eventually handicap the side in the future. His very clear failed transfer policies and failure to run the club at all, complaints from Lionel Messi, all of that would eventually catch up with him, and he would be ousted among allegations of bribery and defamation in 2020. Bartomeo made very few thoughtful decisions, electing instead to focus on immediate hopes and dreams that would never come true. Over his years at the club, he complained and complained and scapegoated others and was called out by many players at the club, one of whom may have been more victimized than any other person by the failures of Bartomeo. I don't think I have to remind anyone watching this video about what Lionel Messi meant to Barcelona. Whether you were born in 1960 or 2006, you likely got the opportunity to experience some magic from Messi. However, I see the way he left Barcelona as a huge stain on our history, and so I think it very much so deserves a spot here in the iceberg. How did Messi go about leaving Barcelona and why? Going back to 2020, the world was in a pandemic, Barcelona lost 8-2 to Bayern Munich, and I was playing way too much FIFA career mode all the while. Lionel Messi was very unhappy with the way the club was being managed by Josep Bartomeo. Messi tried to force his way to Manchester City, but the board refused to let him leave, and so Messi was to stay to play out his contract. Now, I can't say for certain if Messi was happy to still be playing at the club of his life or mad about the club's stubbornness, but I can be sure that he was absolutely not happy to be unable to re-sign his contract the following year, and having to leave Barcelona. See, when Bartomeo was ousted as president, Joan Laporta, a previous president of the club, was put in charge, yet again to write the ship and maybe more importantly than anything, re-signed Lionel Messi, but today we know that never happened. When Laporta took charge, he realized the books were significantly worse than he originally imagined. Loans were taken out and the future of the club for a moment seemed to be hanging by a threat. Now, eventually Laporta and the club were able to use the loans to save the club, but that meant debt. In La Liga, financial fair play is very strict, which is meant to ensure that all clubs are run in a healthy manner. Well, to the league, FC Barcelona was like a lifelong smoker whose lungs were on its last leg, so the league restricted its ability to buy sigs in hope to prolong its life. Messi was like Barcelona's sig. They couldn't sign him because they took out so much debt that their salary spending limit was so low, they couldn't fit Messi in even with a 50% pay cut, which was the maximum that he could take. It just couldn't be done. Messi was forced to leave the club in August of 2021, exactly 20 years and 9 months from the day the Argentine committed his future to the Catalan club on a napkin. However, I see no better man to move on to next than probably the only player in the club's history that can hold a candle to the legacy of Lionel Messi. And that's Johan Cruyff. Now, I didn't know a ton about Cruyff before starting this video, but I knew it was a topic that we had to talk about, and so I'm excited to cover a little bit just a glimpse at the history of this incredible player. Johan Cruyff joined Barcelona in 1973, and his impact was felt just about immediately, as he helped the team win their first league victory in 14 years, winning the Ballon d'Or in the same season. Barcelona before Cruyff were very messy, but after Cruyff, both as a player and as a manager, in fact, the club drastically changed. There were a lot of moments that I could have talked about to exemplify what Cruyff meant to Barcelona and what Barcelona meant to Cruyff, but I think that none are probably better than the day he almost got arrested after receiving a red card on the pitch. 1975, Barcelona vs. Malaga. The Franco-Spanish government is still in full effect, and for you youngsters, that pretty much means biased against anything that has to do with Catalonia, a state firmly against Franco's government. FC Barcelona and Johan Cruyff at the time were very well versed in mistreatment by this government and poor refereeing against them and potentially rigged matches. This game against Malaga was no different. During that match, Barcelona with Cruyff as their captain were allegedly denied two clear penalties and a goal that should have stood being instead, ruled offside. And to make everything worse, Malaga scored a second goal on the day, one where the linesman actually flagged it for offside and the referee allowed it to stand, none the less. Imagine that happening in today's day and age. That would probably make you pretty angry. Well, that's exactly what happened to Cruyff on the pitch that day. The Dutchman lost his mind at the ref, receiving a yellow card for dissent, and then continuing on with his rampage against the injustice that he was seeing, and he would be delivered his second yellow card just seconds later. At that point, Cruyff did his best Keppa Rizabalaga impression and refused to go off the pitch when he was told to, so they got the police involved escorting him off the pitch. But Cruyff, in a last-ditch effort of defiance against the referee and the Franco government and whatever biases laid in that match, Cruyff kissed the Signeta captain's armband, which was the colors that represent Catalonia, to show where his real alliances lay. Cruyff stood up for what he believed in as a player at FC Barcelona, and I can only speak about so much about him, but he had almost equally, if not a bigger impact as a coach of the squad. When the flying Dutchman came back to Barcelona as a manager, he set the club on a path to be the best in the world. Before him, the club was in debt and trouble, but under him, they won four straight league titles and the club's first European Cup. He changed the way not only Barcelona, but managers look at football today. Without Cruyff, there would have never been a Pep Guardiola or even a La Masia. Cruyff's significance is something every Barcelona fan should be aware of. But if you guys love Johann Cruyff, check out my design at RollooDesigns.com. We have hoodies and posters that shows off the flying Dutchman and represents what he meant to Barcelona, and it also helps me make more videos as well. But now it's time for tier two of the iceberg, and buckle up because everything kind of gets a little crazy after this point. And we're gonna start with none other than probably the most hated player in Barcelona history, at least for a good portion of the fanbase, Luis Figo. Originally, Figo came to Barcelona in 1995 as a sort of mistake because he intended to sign with a club in Italy, and he actually did sign, but for two clubs. And when UEFA found out, they banned him from playing in Italy, so Cruyff, the manager of Barcelona at the time, signed him instead. In Catalonia, Figo quickly became one of the few fan favorites at the time, being just behind Pep Guardiola, and it was easy to see why. He was lighting up the pitch and competing with all of the best players in the world. Naturally, his rising quality attracted attention, attention from other clubs to sign him, and attention from his agent to maximize his paycheck. Now, Real Madrid, even though they had won two successive European cups at the time, they were in a bit of a crisis. And so, Florentino Perez, a presidential candidate at the time for the club, promised the club something that was unbelievable, something that would never happen, right? He promised the club that they would sign Luis Figo from Barcelona. Now, for Barcelona fans, that didn't matter that much to them at the time, because the Portuguese winger was clearly setting up his roots at Barça, and the fans loved him, and everyone thought he was pretty happy. In fact, the guy came out and said it himself on the front of a Catalan newspaper. He said Perez's words were lies, and that he was going to stay at Barcelona. Well, nine days later, Luis Figo was pictured shaking hands and smiling with Florentino Perez in Madrid. Now, there's a large financial mess behind all of this that we can't be exactly sure of. There were comments from his agent saying that he made a pre-contract with Real Madrid only to use it as a bargaining chip against Barcelona, but then there was a clause in that that made them pay a certain amount, and we also can't be sure what his bonus was through all of this that encouraged him to try and sign for Madrid. However, what we can be sure of is that Madrid paid his release clause that summer, and Barcelona were without their champion, the one who would go on to win the Ballon d'Or that year, and he was going to their bitter rivals, Real Madrid. In his first match back at the Camp Nou, the atmosphere was extremely hostile to say the least. Whiskey bottles were thrown at the player whenever he went to take a corner, and we have all seen the hogs head by his feet, thrown on the pitch by an angry coulet. Neymar leaving for a crazy fee and a ton of money may have upset some fans, but this level of betrayal is something that has never been replicated. He became the best in the world at Barcelona, and Culez loved him for that, and he said he loved them back just nine days before he would leave them forever for their bitter rivals. I'd like to say that the rest of this tier list is a bit brighter, but in fact it gets a lot darker and weirder and crazier, so just prepare yourself for this, and let's look at the life and death of Barcelona's founder. In 1899, a Swiss footballer named Jean Gamper was making his way from France to Africa for business, but on his way he stopped in Barcelona to meet with his uncle, and well, he never left. After falling in love with the city, he put out an ad in the local paper looking to start a football club on October 22nd, 1899, and just over a month later on November 29th, F.C. Barcelona was born. And though that was a decision we are all so thankful for today, it may have contributed to Gamper ending his own life. Jean Gamper spent years as a player and president of the club until 1925 when his final term ended in significant controversy when Barça's Catalan fans booed and jeered the Spanish national anthem. Tensions were very high at the time due to Catalonia's defiance of that dictator, who in turn said that all of this mess was a personal attack by Gamper for promoting Catalan nationalism. From that point on, it seems like Gamper was pursued or chased out by the head of the country, leading him to losing effectively everything that he had. After being exiled from the country and from what he had built and loved in F.C. Barcelona, he ended his life. Even before Barcelona's slogan became Mesca Un Club, you could see that there were deep roots in something that was much bigger than football within F.C. Barcelona, and this is an example of all of that. With Barcelona's extremely long history and intense political background, it's obvious that some of these stories are not going to be the most positive, and it's the same with the next story, Suñol. I hate to have too sad stories in a row, but Barcelona's political history is very well known by a lot of fans, but it's also very well forgotten by others. So I think it's important to emphasize it in the iceberg. Josep Suñol is a perfect example of that. Suñol was born in 1898 to a wealthy Catalan family, and while Joan Gamper's connection to Barça was very much so a sporting one, Suñol was much more political. For a little bit of context, during the first few decades of the 1900s, identity with Catalonian nationalism or the Siniera colors were outlawed, and yet, Suñol rallied his monetary influence to grow that Catalan identity in Barcelona. In 1928, he would become the director of F.C. Barcelona, and after creating a weekly paper that covered both politics and sport, he continued to push the idea that the club needed to combine these ideas, advocating for what he called, and I'm sorry if I butcher it, esport equitadania. Basically, sports should be used as the front of political and cultural activity instead of what we see a lot today where players are just expected to shut up and dribble. It was the exact opposite what Suñol wanted for his Barcelona. He was eventually elected to be president of the club in 1935, but his tenure would sadly be very short-lived. After a trip to Valencia, the car he occupied made its way around Madrid as it was a Republican stronghold at the time for the Spanish Civil War, where tensions were very high as the fighting had just started weeks before. Sadly, his car unknowingly entered a zone controlled by Franco's troops, and without questions or answers, let's just say they were all retired there. When word of the disaster reached Barcelona, the club was sent into disarray, and basically from that point on, FC Barcelona was involved in the Spanish Civil War. But those political differences may have come out more than ever during one of Real Madrid's biggest signings in their history, someone who changed them forever, Alfredo de Stefano. However, I'm gonna let Dan take this one because it's crazy. You know, Robbie, I know we're wrapping up Tier 2, but in terms of what ifs and the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid, all talk about Alfredo de Stefano should be in Tier 1. But for Barca fans, I totally get how that's a name that they would want to forget. Because 70 years later, the story of de Stefano's transfer is sometimes framed as Barcelona being stubborn and not sharing, as opposed to possibly being the victim of corruption. De Stefano got his start playing for the La Maquina River Plate side of the late 40s. But due to a player strike, led by de Stefano and others, he moved to Millenarios in Colombia in 1949. Flash forward to 1952, and now here is where things get dicey. One story goes that Real Madrid president Santiago Bernabéu invited the Colombian team to a friendly in Madrid and struck a deal with Millenarios then and there in March of 1952. Shortly thereafter, Barcelona struck a deal with River Plate, who held the player's registration rights for when he was legally supposed to return to the Buenos Aires club. The other way the story goes is that Barcelona made the deal with River Plate first. Then when negotiating with Millenarios in Colombia, they brought Catalan Juan Bousquets, who was living in Colombia at the time, to the table. Unfortunately for Barça, Bousquets was a director of Millenarios' local rival, Santa Fe. When the Catalan club's offer was too low and promptly rejected, it seems that talks broke down. This is the point when this version of the story says Madrid came in and made a deal with the Colombian. Either way, the outcome was the same. Barça had a deal with River Plate, Real Madrid had a deal with Millenarios. So now at this point, Barcelona flew de Stefano and his team into Catalonia and he suited up for the club, alongside Lázua Cobala, for Barça's pre-season. Incept the Spanish Football Federation, however, who, in September of 1953, came to the verdict that de Stefano would play for Real Madrid and Barcelona in alternating years for four seasons, beginning with Los Blancos. And if you were confused before, this is where things get extra confusing. Barça president Martí Carrero resigned and Barça refused the agreement, with Madrid paying Barça the 4.5 million Pesetas that they had paid River Plate. Why exactly Barça couldn't reach a deal with Millenarios? Why the Federation couldn't come to a conclusion after FIFA had already agreed to the Barça and River Plate deal? Was it just pride that had Barça rip up the contract? Or was it General Franco, or at least his government, involved in getting the player to Madrid? A month later, Real Madrid defeated Barcelona for nothing and de Stefano had four goals. At this point in their history, Real Madrid had only won two Ligas. Barcelona had won six and Atlético Madrid had won four. The construction of the Camp Nou was to begin the next year in 1954 and de Stefano could have helped Cobala and company make a huge splash. So to answer the question of what if Barcelona had split his time, if de Stefano had spent the following year, that being the 1953-54 season with Catalan, who lost Liga by five points, 46-41, they would have qualified for the first-ever European Cup instead of Madrid. Yeah, the very first one, when only the top team in the league qualified. Now it's quite a big what-if for Barcelona to have won it, but the next season, when the Liga was won by Athletic Club, Madrid still qualified in third after being title holders. Even with de Stefano, they finished third. The last season of that four-year agreement, the 1956-57 season, saw Madrid again top Barcelona by five points, 44-39. And Sevilla actually finished second on head-to-head results. Looking at the history of the two clubs, Navy Barça are still largely Barça in future decades with or without de Stefano. Real Madrid, on the other hand, they may not have become the Real Madrid. We know them as today. Jump on over to part two of this video to learn about the riot that ended Matadona's career at Barcelona and the kidnapping of a Barcelona player that altered the title race and the rest of this iceberg. Because it gets crazy, and I thought that no one should handle the rest of this tier, except the guy that I know that knows more about Barcelona than anyone else. So check out this video to learn more about Barcelona, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.