CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINALS: Paddy Agnew previews the Champions League semi-final between aristocrats Real Madrid and the pride of Catalonia, Barcelona
In the summer of 1953, just when it seemed that Catalan club Barcelona had beaten arch-rivals Real Madrid in the race to buy a promising Argentine newcomer called Alfredo Di Stefano, the "Generalissimo" intervened. Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco was damned if Barcelona were going to land this particular fish.
Even though Barcelona had already concluded a deal with Colombian club Millonarios di Bogotà, Franco leaned on the Spanish Football Federation, persuading them to force Barcelona to "share" their new golden boy with Real Madrid. In its Solomonic wisdom, the Federation decided that Di Stefano should play first one season with Real and then the next with Barcelona.
When it came to the end of that first season, however, Barcelona made it clear they would not even consider the idea of fielding a player who had worn the loathed "camiseta blanca" of Real Madrid. So, Di Stefano stayed at Real and went on to write himself into soccer legend as a key figure in one of the greatest club sides of all time.
The tensions provoked between Real Madrid and Barcelona over Di Stefano are just one chapter in a bitter rivalry that transcends the boundaries of sport, a rivalry due to experience its most hyped, most watched (500 million TV viewers at the latest count) and most keenly anticipated ever edition when the two sides meet in tomorrow night's Champions League semi-final, first-leg tie at the Nou Camp in Barcelona.
It gives some idea of the expectations aroused by this match to discover that, on the morning after Real Madrid had beaten Bayern Munich 2-0 in their quarter-final tie two weeks ago to earn their place in the semi-finals, the sports dailies of the Catalan capital, Sport and El Mundo Deportivo, chose to greet the forthcoming "Superclasicos" with the modestly stated, front page banner headline: "Dual of The Century".
Given that we still have 98 years ahead of us in this century, you could argue that the headlines are slightly over the top. Only slightly, though. Barcelona-based soccer writer Jeff King talks about the extent of the interest in this particular meeting: "Everyone knows that Real Madrid versus Barcelona is always the big match of the season. The hype gets even worse when the two clubs are both in with a chance of winning the league title. But this is something different, I've never seen anything like it. From the day of the quarter-finals, all the papers, and not just sports papers, have been devoting pages to the match. Even Spain's 5-0 mid-week friendly win against Northern Ireland could hardly knock it off the front pages."
The origins of the rivalry of this "mother of all matches" go right back to the 1920s. It was then that Barcelona football club found itself becoming identified with Catalan and Republican sentiments. Although the club had been founded in 1899 by a foreigner, Swiss footballer Joan Gamper who had been systematically denied access to local city clubs, Barcelona developed a huge appeal for Catalans after fans had openly protested against King Alfonso XIII during a game played at the old "Les Corts" stadium.
By way of response, the Football Federation closed down "Les Corts" just to teach those bad-mouthed, independent-minded Catalans a lesson. That move backfired because, little by little, it helped transform Barcelona into a symbol for those resentful of Madrid-based, authoritarian, centralised rule.
Nor did the move make the Barcelona fans feel any better about rivals Real Madrid. After all, the "Real" (royal) in the Madrid club's name had been bestowed by none other than that same King Alfonso XIII in June of 1920.
Under Franco, inevitably, the rivalry became all the more intense. Throughout the '50s Catalans winced as Franco regularly piggy-backed on the remarkable success of a Real Madrid side that became the first (black and white) TV superstars when winning five consecutive European Cups.
Whilst Franco basked in the winning glow of a Real side that internationally represented the acceptable face of his repressive, isolationist, Fascist regime, Catalans more and more came to identify Barcelona football club as the symbol par excellence of their struggle for greater regional autonomy. Little wonder that the club slogan, "Mes que un club" (Much more than a club), really caught on.
Whilst Real were the establishment side, "l'equipo de toda Espana", Barcelona became the de facto Catalan national team, "l'equip de Cataunya". Not for nothing was it that Barcelona's 1960s built, magnificent Nou Camp stadium became one of the few public places where people could shout anti-Franco slogans and get away with it.
Not for nothing, either, did Real run head-first into leftist protests on its international travels. Di Stefano recalls one such incident: "I think it was 1962, we went to Turin to play Juventus in the Champions Cup. A demonstration organised by the PCI (Italian Communist Party) stormed our hotel and tried to stop the game being played because they said we were ambassadors for Franco's fascism.
"That wasn't true. We were ambassadors for ourselves, it was Franco who tried to use sport as propaganda, not unlike the way politicians today try to use it. Anyway, the police dispersed the demonstrators, we played and I scored the winning goal."
To some extent, the bitter antagonism of the Franco years still lives on. Real Madrid is still the establishment side, counting amongst its VIP fans King Juan Carlos, former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales and current centre-right Prime Minister José Maria Aznar. Barcelona can count upon the elite of Catalan society whilst one of its 106,000 club members is a Polish gentleman called Karol Wojtyla, better known as Pope John Paul II.
Bulgarian ace Hristo Stoichkov, a star with Barcelona through the '90s, recalls his astonishment when playing his first away games for "Barca". Opposing fans used to shout "Spagna", "Spagna" at Barcelona during games. Puzzled, Stoichkov asked one of his team-mates for an explanation: "Why are they shouting "Spain" at us all the time. Is Barcelona not part of Spain?" "You got it, Hristo. Barcelona is part of Catalonia, not Spain," came the answer from an amused Catalan team mate.
If Real is still the establishment side, then Barcelona clearly is still the de facto Catalan national team, the one that plays to cries of "Visca el Barça I visça Catalunya" (Up Barcelona and Up Catalonia).
Parallel with the two clubs' socio-political rivalry has been a tremendous sporting rivalry, one that has endeared both clubs to football fans worldwide. In their determination to outdo the other, both clubs have produced outstanding sides led by the best talent money could buy.
Real set the ball rolling with that magical side of the '50s, featuring not only Di Stefano but also Hungarian wizard Ferenc Puskas, Frenchman Raymond Kopa and Francisco Gento. Portuguese ace Luis Figo (suspended for the first leg) and French playmaker Zinedine Zidane are but the modern day inheritors of the international globetrotter tradition established 50 years ago by Di Stefano, Puskas et al.
Barcelona, too, had their stars in the '50s, including Puskas' compatriots Sandor Kocsic and Ladislao Kubala. Yet, it has been in the intervening years that "Barça" regularly threatened to outdo Real, fielding men like Dutchman Johan Cruyff in the '70s, German Bernd Schuster and Argentine Diego Maradona in the '80s, not to mention a Brazilian called Ronaldo in the mid-90s. Today, it is another Brazilian, Rivaldo, who carries the torch for the international brigade at Barcelona.
The obvious sparks that have lit the flame of media and fan frenzy in the build-up to tomorrow night's game, however, concern other aspects of the past. Namely, the Champions League itself and the celebrations for Real's centenary year. Over the years when Barcelona fans have taunted Real fans with allegations that Franco (and others) systematically "bought" referees to ensure Real's success, the Madrid fans have always responded by pointing to their Champions League record.
Eight Champions Cups for Real, as opposed to one for Barcelona, cannot have been won without playing some good football along the way, they argue. For years, too, Barcelona suffered in wretched silence as they proved apparently unable to match Real Madrid's international record.
Having lost in the 1961 final to Benfica and in the 1986 final to Steaua Bucharest, Barcelona's first and only Champions Cup win finally came against Sampdoria at Wembley in 1992. It was a victory greeted with no small relief. In the Barcelona club museum close to the Nou Camp, the boot worn by Dutchman Ronald Koeman, scorer of Barcelona's winning goal that night, sits proudly on display. Alongside it, there is another understated caption: "The Launching of the First Ever Catalan Artificial Satellite".
If Barcelona feel a small sense of inferiority re Real Madrid when it comes to the Champions League (something that no self-respecting Catalan would ever admit), that feeling cannot have been helped when FIFA recently named Real the "Best Club Team of the 20th Century", thanks mainly to their great Champions Cup record.
Given all of that, it hardly needs explaining just how much satisfaction Barcelona fans would get from stopping Real in world club football's premier competition. That potential satisfaction becomes practically uncontainable when you consider that this little encounter is happening right in the middle of Real's centenary year celebrations.
Hundreds of major and minor events will be staged throughout Spain this year to mark that centenary. Among those are a Real Madrid v Rest of The World friendly at Real's intimidating Santiago Bernabeu stadium next December. Furthermore, the winner of Spain's premier cycling classic, the Vuelta or Tour of Spain, will this year not wear the race leader/winner's traditional yellow jersey but rather a white jersey in honour of Real's world famous white football jersey.
Starting as of tomorrow night, Barcelona fans would just love to spoil the centenary party. They look back longingly to 1960 when they eliminated the then all-dominant Real in the first round of the Champions Cup, on the last occasion the two clubs met in this tournament.
For neutrals and for those of us of a certain age, however, that all-dominant Real Madrid of the '50s remains a remarkable childhood memory. It is a memory of a night in May 1960, some months before Barcelona were to eliminate them in the next season's competition, when Real Madrid won a memorable Champions Cup final at Hampden Park, beating German side Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3.
One was only a child, the images were in black and white, televised football was but in its infancy and Kenneth Wolstenholme was the commentator. Even a child, though, could discern the impish, effortless skill of Puskas, the imperious thrusts of Di Stefano, the pace of Gento. It was a football to dream by. Di Stefano, himself, inevitably recalls those days with much nostalgia: "Nowadays, people say that the coaches are the real maestri. There's Sacchi's Milan, Van Gaal's Ajax, Ferguson's United, Cruyff's Barcelona. My Real, however, went through four coaches - the Uruguayan Fernandez, the Spaniard Villalonga, the Argentine Carniglia and the Paraguayan Fleitas. Now, I ask you? Who mattered more, those coaches or us players?" It would be nice to think that tomorrow night, it will be the individual brilliance of Zidane or Rivaldo, Raul or Kluivert that will count most. Given today's football, the pressure of the occasion may see coaches Vicente Del Bosque and Carles Rexach have their (negative) say too.
For the Real and Barca fans, however, the quality of the game will matter little. Winning and defeating the loathed auld enemy is the only item on their agenda. Over to the Nou Camp.
