Tag Archives: #FCBarcelona

In Memory of the simpatico Terry  Venables

Posted on November 26, 2023 in the Blog, Football category

  The former England, Barcelona and Tottenham manager has died aged 80.   I owe to the personable Terry Venables some memorable times together during which his  colourful  insights  provided me with the material for two books of mine that came to be enjoyed by fans  around the world-The Hand of God and Barca. It was Venables that told me how he resigned himself to losing Diego Maradona from his squad soon after taking over the management of FC Barcelona in May 1984. While there had been speculation that  Maradona …

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Messi Money

Posted on August 11, 2021 in the Blog, Football Writing category

  The Tokyo Olympics and the move by Messi from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain provide examples to be followed and cautionary tales, writes Jimmy Burns.   Even for those of who have managed only a cursory armchair TV look-in during the Tokyo Olympics between navigating our August break through competing and disruptive terrain of Test cricket, the Lions tour of South Africa , and Covid protocols, the event has served as a reminder of the sheer joy of sport played in its essence along with much else. Mostly very …

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Barca’s Sad Night

Posted on April 20, 2017 in the Blog, Football category

Compared to the heroism of the ‘Remontada’ against PSG,last night’s defeat at the hands of Juventus was sadly a much more mundane affair. It was huge of Barca fans in the Nou Camp to wave their flags and chant for the team as the final seconds ticked away, but the occasion did not really warrant it. Barca was crushed i their own stadium.You don’t expect that in the Nou Camp, let alone in the Champion’s League. Last night’s match showed Juventus magnificently resilient in defence and Barca less that heroic …

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Cruyff- Dream Maker

Posted on March 24, 2016 in the Blog, Misc category

When people ask me , an anglo-spaniard- born in 1953 in Madrid a few hundred yards  from the Bernabeu,the year of Di Stefano’s arrival,  why I am a Barca fan, I mention Johan Cruyff. Hearing the news of his death brings back those heady days of the mid 1970’s when I first fell in love with FC Barcelona thanks to the flying Dutchman who later created Barca’s a  ‘dream team’-one of several as it would turn out- thereby leaving an enduring legacy. For if in  its political and cultural dimension …

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My Barca Lament

Posted on July 11, 2015 in the Blog, Misc category

There is just a week to go before the presidential elections at FC Barcelona, a sporting institution that has played an inseparable and much loved part of my life for many years . And yet I feel so dispassionate about the event, to the point of negativity. As a member of the Barca’s London Penya or fan club, I have failed to volunteer to collect signatures for two of the leading contenders –Joan Laporta and Josep Maria Bartomeu, and I have decided not to exercise my right as a club …

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