FC Barcelona All Thing

Futbol Club Barcelona (Catalan pronunciation: [fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish: [ˈfuðβol ˌkluβ barθeˈlona]), also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça (Catalan: [ˈbaɾsə], Spanish: [ˈbarsa]), is a football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The team was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Spanish men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto “Més que un club” (More than a club). The official Barça anthem is El Cant del Barça by Josep Maria Espinàs.

FC Barcelona is one of only three clubs never to have been relegated from La Liga and the most successful club in Spanish football after Real Madrid, having won nineteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-five Spanish Cups, eight Spanish Super Cups, four Eva Duarte Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won thirteen official major European trophies in total, including ten UEFA competitions.[1] They have won three UEFA Champions League titles, a record four UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups (the forerunner to the UEFA Europa League) and three UEFA Super Cups. In 2009, Barcelona became the first club in Spain to win the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League. The club is also the only European side to have played continental football in every season since its inception in 1955.

The club’s stadium is the Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of 98,772 seats. Barcelona enjoys a high rate of popularity; about 25.7% of Spanish population support the club,[2] while according to a recent survey Barcelona is the most popular football club in Europe with around 44.2 million fans.[3] With 170,000 socis (members) in September 2009,[4] the Catalan club is also placed among the top football clubs in the world with the most registered members, and the number of penyes, the officially-registered supporter clubs, reached the number of 1,888 worldwide in August 2009. The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culés. The club shares a great rivalry with Real Madrid and contest in one of the most famous football matches worldwide, known as El Clásico.

During the 2007–08 season, FC Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of €308.8 million. It was also one of the founding members of the now-defunct G-14 group of the leading European football clubs and its modern replacement, the European Club Association. The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.

As of July 1, 2009, FC Barcelona was ranked first in UEFA team ranking.[5] According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), Barça has been the most consistently successful club in the world since the organisation began collecting statistics, in the period 1991-2008

Full name Gnegneri Yaya Touré
Nationality Ivory Coast
Date of birth May 13, 1983 (1983-05-13)
Place of birth Sokoura Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Nickname Touré Yaya, La Roca, Cañón Touré
Position Midfielder
Number 17

Gnegneri Yaya Touré also spelt Yahya Touré or Touré Yaya (Arabic pronunciation: Yaheeyaa Tooray, Tooray Yaheeyaa) (born May 13, 1983 in the Ivory Coast), is an Ivorian footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona. He has 17 caps for the Côte d’Ivoire.

Touré, a midfielder, is the younger brother of Arsenal F.C. defender Kolo Touré. They have a younger brother Ibrahim Touré, who plays for OGC Nice.

Touré joined ASEC Mimosas youth academy in 1996. After two years in KSK Beveren (Belgium) and two more at FC Metalurh Donetsk (Ukraine), he moved to Olympiacos in 2005. He was nicknamed “the new Patrick Vieira” by his brother Kolo. He is said to have attracted the interest of clubs such as Olympique Lyon, Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Everton, and A.C. Milan, but has since expressed a wish to play alongside his brother Kolo at Arsenal. Ahead of the 2005/2006 Premiership season he spent a period during pre-season on trial at Arsenal, but failed to seal a permanent move. He was also selected by Eurosport in 2005 as one of the most promising young players worldwide (Javier Mascherano and Sergio Agüero were included in the list as well). It has since emerged that Arsenal made a €7m bid in January 2006 which was rejected as Olympiacos wanted to wait to the summer to consider selling.

Olympiakos decided to accept a mere €4.5m from French Ligue 1 side A.S. Monaco as a result of the players refusal to return to Greece for the team’s pre-season training. Touré accused Olympiacos of not paying his due salaries, while Olympiacos accused him of lying in order to get transferred. On August 15, 2006 Touré completed his move to the Ligue 1 side.

Touré is a central midfielder who stands out because of his physical abilities. Very capable in holding and protecting the ball, he excels in a variety of passes, including long, short and direct. In difficult situations, when his team is under pressure, he has the ability to make forward runs, thus he has been recognized as a box-to-box player.

On 26 June 2007 Spanish La Liga giants FC Barcelona announced the signing of Touré for a reported fee of €10m (£6.7m). He is the Catalan outfit’s second signing of the summer 2007 transfer window following the capture of striker Thierry Henry from Arsenal. At his official presentation with club president Joan Laporta and director of football Txiki Beguiristáin, he was given the number 17 shirt. However, it has since been announced that he will wear the number 24 shirt for Barça which was vacated by Andrés Iniesta and the number 17 will be worn by Giovani dos Santos.

At the Joan Gamper Trophy 2007 match against Internazionale, he scored his first Barcelona goal.