THE HISTORY OF THE CREST

Not many fans, especially the young ones of this generation, know the history of their team's emblem. Since this blog is devoted to information on FC Barcelona, i decided to reveal the history of the FC Barcelona crest.

Since the creation of the club in 1899, the players have always worn an emblem on their shirt. The first emblem was the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona. It was a diamond-shaped crest divided into four quarters. It had a crown over it (Crown of Aragon) as well as a bat (Bat of king James). It also had two branches surrounding it, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm.  Even at such a young age, the emblem symbolized the connection between the club and the city of its roots.

The crest remained unchanged until 1910. Joan Gamper had saved the club from serious crisis in 1908 and shortly after, it was decided that the club should have its own differentiated emblem. This led to a competition among interested members which was held to determine who would design the new emblem in 1910. The winner was Carles Comamala who played for the club between 1903 and 1912 and was a medical student at the time. He was also a fine artist and so the crest that the club wears to this day was created. There have been some slight variations though. The crest had a bowl shape design with the two upper quarters retaining the st. George cross and red and yellow bars of the original, the most representative symbols of Barcelona and Catalonia. The initials of the club F.C.B. appeared on a strip across the centre and below lied the barca colours with a ball. The emblem, therefore, represents the sporting dimensions of the club and its connection to its city and country.

Minimal changes have been made to the design since 1910. Just aesthetic changes to the outline. The biggest changes came as a result of political obligations. When Franco came into power, the initials F.C.B were replaced by C.F.B. This was a reflection of the way the club was made to use the Spanish version of its name. The club was also obliged to remove two of the four bars on the upper quarters as a result of the dictatorship. Hence, the catalan flag was excluded from the crest. However, on the occasion of the club's 50th anniversary in 1949, the four bars were restored. The letters, though, were not recovered until 1974 when the club decided to revert the crest back to the 1910 design.

The present crest however is based on the design made by Clarret Serrahima in 2002. The lines are a little more stylized, the dots between the letters have been removed, the name has been made smaller and there are fewer pointed edges. The lines in this new design are somewhat simpler which makes it easier for the club's identity to be reproduced at various formats.

The present crest is just unique and very beautiful and I don't think FCB will be making any modifications any time soon.
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Valdes reaches 400

In the same match that 'LM50' got his 50th goal of the season, Barcelona goal keeper, Victor Valdes, completed his 400th game for the club. Valdes, who became a 1st team regular at the arrival of manager Radomir Antic in the 2002-03 season, became first choice goal keeper for FCB in the 2003-04 season and has since gone on to become the most successful goal keeper in the club's history. Valdes has won 4 la liga titles, 2 champions league titles and 1 copa del rey. He has also won the Zamora trophy awarded to the best keeper in the Spanish league, on the basis of least number of goals conceded, 3 times (2004-05,2008-09,2009-10).
Victor Valdes is now the second goal keeper in the history of FC Barcelona to have played most games. He is surpassed only by Zubizarreta. Valdes is only 11 games away from overtaking Zubizarreta and becoming the most capped goal keeper in the history of FCB. Speaking to Barca tv, Valdes expressed his delight at the achievement: "It's an honour. First, because Zubizarreta has been an example for me since I got into the first team. As the seasons have gone by, he’s been very influential in my game, and my way of thinking. I've always said that what he did was fantastic. He was the first to win a European Cup and the first in many things. I’m lucky to have him by my side every day and if I can beat his record, so much the better".
The win against Osasuna lifted the morale of the team and Valdes believes the team has what it takes to defeat Madrid over their next 2 champions league games."We are a team with players who are winners and we want to repeat the triumphs with Barça. So, we just have to keep going, and go all out against Real Madrid"."We know what can happen against Real Madrid. We must take what comes, and it may depend a lot on the referee whether we can play our game or not. But we’re not obsessed about these things. We have to do our thing and play the game that suits us. The key will be ball possession, and we have to pass, and pass, until we get a chance on goal".

Valdes was also in the Spain squad that won the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Still only 29 years of age Valdes is heading for a milestone record in FC Barcelona club football.

MESSI HITS 50

The current FIFA Ballon D'Or holder, Lionel Messi, scored his 50th goal of the season last night in FCB's 2-0 defeat of Osasuna. Messi, now, who i'll like to nickname "LM50", is the only player ever in spanish football to score at least 50 goals in a single season. The likes of  Puskas(1966-67 Real Madrid) and Ronaldo(1996-97 FCB) have had their records (47goals a season each and in a 22 team league as in the case of Ronaldo) equaled and smashed by the "little one" over 2 consecutive seasons. This however is not new in european football as 8 other players have scored at least 50 goals in a single european seaon. Below is a list of the players who have achieved this incredible feat:

Player	Club	Season	Goals
Ferenc Deak	Ferencvaros	1948-49	66
Gyula Zsengeller	Ujpest	1938-39	56
Fred Roberts	Glentoran	1931-32	55
Mario Jardel	Sporting Lisbon	2001-02	55
Henrik Larsson	Celtic	2000-01	53
William MacFadyen	Motherwell	1932-33	52
Jimmy McGrory	Celtic	1935-36	50
Joe Bambrick	Linfield	1929-30	50
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	2010-11	50

 From the least above, we can safely say that 'LM50' is just awesome considering the league in which he plays. Not many players can boast of over 40 goals in modern day football, say since year 2000, especially in leagues such as english premier league, la liga, serie A, french league 1, german bundesliga and other top european football leagues. Keeping in mind that 'LM50' stills has at least 7 games to play until the season is over,it will be nice to see how many goals he eventually ends the season with.