Barca, The Official Illustrated History Of Fc Barcelona

Description

Barca celebrates the rise and rise of the most dominant soccer team in the modern era. It is not just that the team has won everything there is to win, it is that they do it with a style rarely seen in world soccer. They have excited fans not just in Catalonia, but right around the globe, making household names of Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Romario, Maradona, Cruyff and many more over more than a century of footballing excellence. This book traces the club's history from its formation in 1899, the trials and triubulations of growth, the battle to emerge from the shadow - politically and sportingly - of Madrid, the blossoming of the club in the 1970s, European glory in the 1980s and 90s, and now this juggernaut of soccer that brushes aside all-comers. Features on the legends of Barcelona give deeper insight into the clubs key players and the lively, informative text is brought to life by dramatic action images.

Author description

Guillem Balague is a key fixture in UK cable broadcaster Sky Sports' coverage of Spanish soccer, appearing regularly both on live match coverage and on the weekly round-up show, Revista de La Liga. He is also the UK correspondent for AS, the Madrid-based Spanish sports newspaper and El Larguero, Spain's most popular sports radio show, attracting some 1.5 million listeners. In the English press, his work appears regularly in The Times and The Observer newspapers and in Champions magazine, where he writes a regular column on international soccer. As an author, he wrote the bestselling A Season on the Brink (2006), an insider's account of Liverpool's 2004-05 Champions' League winning campaign, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning (2012) and Messi (2013). He lives in London and Barcelona.