December 08, (THEWILL) -La Liga side Barcelona is commemorating the earliest use of the popular alias for the club “Barca”, which clocks a century of use this year.
According to the information from the club’s website, although it remains uncertain when the term “Barça” was originally used to refer to FC Barcelona, it was first printed on this day exactly a hundred years ago.
It was first featured in a comic strip named Histria del Barcelona in a special issue of the sports newspaper La Jornada Deportiva on December 8, 1921. Jaume Passarell, a well-known Catalan artist at the time, penned and drew the work.
The significance of the publication, on the other hand, was unknown until it was discovered in 2016 by Nicolás Sanz, a Barça history enthusiast.
The article traced the club’s history from its inception in 1899 to the opening of Les Corts Stadium, which occurred in May 1922.
In 48 photographs, Passarell introduces the club’s founder Joan Gamper, the early games against English teams where he “taught us to score goals,” the federation’s conflicts, the great Filipino star of the era, Alcántara, and FC Barcelona’s famous victory over Real Sociedad in the 1913 Spanish Championship final, where the famous name first appears: “In the final, without bars / ‘Barsa’ beat the ‘Do’.”
Today marks the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of that significant document and the Catalan club celebrated it with a tweet via their official handle: @FCBarcelona. The succinct post read:
“Did you know the word ‘BARÇA’ turns 100 years old today?”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
