BARCELONA LEGEND

Footbol Club Barcelona, known familiarly as Barca, is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is best known for its football team. It was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English, and Catalan men led by Joan Gamper.

They were founding members of La Liga in 1928. The club were also the first La Liga champions. With 18 La Liga, 24 Copa del Rey, 7 Supercopa de España, 2 UEFA Champions League, 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup and 2 European Super Cup trophies, the club is considered to be one of the most successful clubs in football history in Spain and Europe.

The club's main stadium is the Camp Nou. In September 2006, the number of socis (club members/owners) reached 151,127, while in June 2006 the number of penyes (officially-registered supporter clubs) reached 1782 worldwide.

The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona B, a youth team FC Barcelona C and four other professional sports teams, Winterthur FCB (From 2007/8 AXA-Winterthur FCB), FC Barcelona, FC Barcelona Futsal and FC Barcelona Sorli Discau that compete at basketball, handball, futsal and rink hockey respectively.


There are also a number of prominent amateur sports teams that compete at rugby union, women's basketball, women's football and wheelchair basketball. These include FCB Rugby, UB-Barça and FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman. Other amateur teams represent the club at ice hockey, athletics, baseball, cycling, field hockey, figure skating, and volleyball.

During the 2005-06 season, FC Barcelona was the second richest club in the world with an estimated revenue of €259.1 million.

Litmanen made his first-team debut for Reipas in Finland's top division Veikkausliiga at the age of 16 in 1987. After four seasons he moved to HJK Helsinki, Finland's biggest club, in 1991. A year later he joined MyPa, where he was coached by Harri Kampman, who later became his agent. Litmanen won the Finnish Cup with MyPa before moving abroad in the summer of 1992. His performance in the cup final convinced a scout of Ajax that the club should sign him.

Litmanen had been chased by a host of European clubs, but in the end it was Ajax who bought him. His first season in the Netherlands was spent in Dennis Bergkamp's shadow, but when Bergkamp moved to Inter Milan it was Litmanen who was given the famous number 10 shirt. He scored 26 goals in the 1993-94 season, becoming the league's top scorer, and leading Ajax to the title.

He was one of the star players of Louis van Gaal's team that reached the UEFA Champions League final twice in a row. Litmanen became the first ever Finnish player to have won the European Cup when Ajax beat AC Milan in the 1994-95 final. In 1995-96, Litmanen was the Champions League top scorer with nine goals, including the equaliser in the final against Juventus, which Ajax lost on penalties 4-2. He also won the Intercontinental Cup against Grêmio in 1995, and came third in the voting for the Ballon d'Or, having finished eighth the previous year.

May 15, 1970 in Hoorn, Netherlands) is a former Dutch football midfielder who has played for the Dutch national team as well as a host of professional clubs in Europe. He is the twin brother of Frank de Boer.

De Boer regularly played as attacking right midfielder, although he could also operate in centre attacking midfield role and right forward position.
De Boer won the Champions League with Ajax in 1994-95 season. While impressing at Ajax during the early 1990s towards the 1998 FIFA World Cup, his high-profile transfer to FC Barcelona marked what would be an unlikely bad patch for a prolific goal-scoring midfielder as he managed to feature in only 33 games for the club and only scored one goal overall. In the 2000-01 season, he opted to join the Dutch legion at Rangers under the manager Dick Advocaat.class="fullpost"> Among the Dutch internationals who then played for Rangers when he joined were Arthur Numan, Bert Konterman, Fernando Ricksen, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and he spent four successful seasons with the club before deciding to join Al-Rayyan after the 2003-04 season.BAR

Marc Overmars (born March 29, 1973 in Emst) is a former Dutch football player. He was best known as a right-footed left-winger. Though Overmars had that rare ability to be able to use both his feet with equal precision and power. Known for his great speed and blitzes into enemy territory, Overmars' nicknames included "the Roadrunner" or simply "meep-meep."

In all, Overmars played 87 games for the Dutch national team, scoring 17 goals. Overmars was the youngest Dutch player to reach 50 caps with the Dutch national team. His final match was the Netherlands' loss to Portugal in the semifinals of the 2004 European Championships.

Overmars first joined a small Dutch club called SV Epe before joining Go Ahead Eagles. Willem II Tilburg later bought him from Go Ahead Eagles for ₤200 000 and during the 1991/1992 season, AFC Ajax Amsterdam bought him. In 1993, he made his debut in the Dutch national team against Turkey.

Marc Overmars became famous with Ajax under Louis van Gaal. He was the member of the Ajax team that won the European Cup in 1995 against A.C. Milan of Italy. Soon after 1995, he left Ajax for Arsenal F.C. of England in 1997 after having a heavy right knee injury in 1996. His knee injury did not allow him to be part of EURO96. It was at the London club that his talents were demonstrated with utmost skill, scoring vital goals (his most famous in the FA Cup Final) and assisting compatriot footballer, Dennis Bergkamp, on many goalscoring opportunities. In the World Cup 1998, he was a regular fixture for Holland where he assisted his nation to qualify for the ultimate showdown with Brazil. Overmars was one of the best Dutch players in the tournament but suffered an injury in the 2nd round game against Yugoslavia. This ruled Overmars out of the next match, which was against Argentina. However, Overmars did enter late in the game as a substitute. He made an immediate impact by providing an inch perfect cross that almost led to a goal for the Netherlands. Sadly, Overmars' injury became even worse after this game and he had to sit out the entire following match against Brazil. The Netherlands lost this match on penalties. Overmars was fit again to play in The Netherland's final match, which was the 3rd/4th play-off game against Croatia. The Dutch lost 2-1. In the summer of 2000, he moved to Spain and joined FC Barcelona. Barcelona paid Arsenal ₤25 million for Overmars' service. That made him the most expensive Dutch player ever.

2000: Joined FC Barcelona for €39.6m. Despite a difficult first term at his new club, Overmars was still an impressive performer, registering eight times in 31 appearances. Was a regular feature of Barcelona's 2001/02 Champions League campaign in which he scored once in ten matches en route to the semi-finals.

The last major international tournament that Overmars played in was Euro 2004 in Portugal. Overmars started all the games for the Netherlands from the bench, but when he did come on, the Dutch team suddenly became a more attacking team that created good chances. Nevertheless, Overmars could not prevent the Netherlands losing in the semi-finals.

Despite interest from several "attractive" clubs, On July 26th, 2004, Marc Overmars announced his retirement from professional football due to knee problems.

Sporting de Gijon, Luis Enrique spent most of it with the two biggest Spanish clubs: first Real Madrid in 1991-96 and, in a stunning move, he saw out his contract and moved to fierce rivals FC Barcelona on a free transfer. The Catalan club's supporters were at first understandably hesitant about their new acquisition, but he soon won the culés heart, staying eight years with the club (1996-2004), and even becoming first-team captain.

In his first three seasons with Barcelona, Luis Enrique netted 46 league goals, with Barça finishing runner-up in 1996-97, subsequently winning back-to-back domestic accolades.

On August 10, 2004, at the age of 34, he announced his retirement, Enrique finished his professional career with 400 games and 102 goals, being named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March.

In June 18, 2008, Enrique returned to Barcelona, taking over the reins of FC Barcelona B, which was renamed FC Barcelona Atlètic for 2008-2009