Barcelona have now played a staggering 1,500 games of football at the Camp Nou. The stadium, which was built back in 1957 to replace the legendary Les Corts Stadium due to the demand for tickets exceeding the ground’s capacity, has witnessed 1,119 Barca wins, 238 draws and only 143 defeats over the years.
Barca are clearly not invincible at the Camp Nou but their winning records of 75% and being unbeaten in 90% of home games speaks for themselves.
Barcelona have now become a global phenomenon thanks to not only their dominance, but also the many world-class stars that have been part of their squad over the years. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar take the vast majority of the spotlight these days, but their success can only be understood as a continuation of the work of legends such as Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Hristo Stoichkov or Lazlo Kubala over the years.
Camp Nou is a synonym of sporting excellence these days. The recent successes under the leadership of Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola or Cruyff himself have catapulted Barcelona into a position of privilege at the very top of world football. While results have obviously been brilliant, it is the fact that their success has been achieved while playing beautiful attacking football that has attracted world-wide attention.
The Camp Nou has now been standing proud for 59 years. Personally, I love the fact that the current Barcelona board decided to renovate the stadium rather than build a state-of-the-art replacement elsewhere. Football is as much about passion as it is about history so continuity is definitely welcome.
Looking forward to many more years of glorious football at the Camp Nou!
I will do my best to reply to all comments left below: What is your favourite Camp Nou memory? If you have ever been there, what was your experience like?
