Barcelona have become a dominant force in world football, particularly in the last two decades. Having homegrown talents such as Lionel Messi, Xavi or Andres Iniesta spending their whole careers at the Camp Nou has been a major factor. The contributions of signings such as Luis Suarez, Dani Alves or Samuel Eto’o were also invaluable given their ambition, hunger and upbringing away from the La Masia academy.
However, it is important to highlight that Barcelona have been influential since the club was founded by Joan Gamper back in 1899 while the Catalans’ status as one of the most powerful teams on the planet could have never been predicted, Barca made significant impact from the very beginning.
Crystal Palace, wear red and blue jerseys in homage to Barcelona. This little known fact was undoubtedly caused by the Catalans’ growing influence at European level in the early 1970s. Similarly to Crystal Palace, local Catalan teams such as Sentmenat, Mollet or Gava have worn the Blaugrana colours at some point in their history.
But why does Barcelona wear red and blue in the first place?
Others believe that Arthur Witty, one of the club’s early presidents, decided to adopt the colours of his primary school, Merchant Taylors, as a homage to his childhood memories. More obscure theories include replicating the colours of pencils at the time, a bizarre mixture of the Swiss and Zurich flags or even one of the player’s mums knitting both colours together so that players could easily stand out from their opponents.
Whatever the original reason for Barca’s current colours, it is clear that Gamper’s choice is now more popular than ever before. With superstars such as Neymar and Messi firmly within the Top 5 of best-selling football jerseys on yearly basis, we can be sure that Barca’s Blaugrana is here to stay — and rightly so!
