Why Barcelona & Real Madrid hate each other
This coming weekend, Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet for the third and last time this season in what could potentially be a titledeciding ElClasico. Eight points adrift of Los Blancos, Xavi Hernandez’s troops will need all three points at their temporary home ground, the Olympic Stadium – which is all sold out – amid rumours Blaugrana fans intend to make the atmosphere as uncomfortable as possible for their visiting enemies. Why, however, is there a passionate hatred between these two great LALIGA clubs? And how did the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate, still being had by millions around the world today, contribute to this eternal resentment? Join Soccer Laduma’s Kurt Buckerfield in recalling the foundations of one of football’s most famous and intense rivalries!
Ronaldinho today, Messi tomorrow
Fans in South Africa will be licking their lips on Sunday night when Barcelona host Real Madrid in LALIGA. They’ll enjoy Vinicius Junior’s silky skills down Real’s left flank, they’ll shake their heads in disbelief when Pedri cleverly gets out of a tight situation in midfield with an Andres Iniesta-like body feint, and they will debate refereeing decisions with their friends on Facebook or at work on the Monday that follows. It is a game millions of people around the globe tune into, a match that perfectly encapsulates the essence of competitive football, and, depending on which team you chose to support as a youngster, it is a rivalry that could decide your taste for as long as you live! If, for example, it was Ronaldinho that first inspired you to watch Barcelona in the early 2000s, you’re more than likely to side with Argentina’s No.10 in the great Messi vs Ronaldo debate as that was the path you chose. If, however, you were attracted to Real in their iconic Galactico era, you stayed for the incredible nine-year spell Portugal’s all-time record goalscorer had in the Spanish capital between 2009 and 2018, and are now in the “Jude Bellingham over Pedri” camp. Next season, you might declare Endrick, the Brazilian teenager set to officially join the 14-time UEFA Champions League winners at the end of this campaign, as the best young player in the world over Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal.
Franco’s regime and the Catalan independence movement
In a book originally published in 2001 titled Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, author Phil Ball writes “they hate each other with an intensity that can truly shock the outsider”. Early in the 20th century, opposing political ideologies were at the forefront of what is widely recognised today as football’s most famous rivalry. Barcelona were viewed as a representation of liberation and democracy during Francisco Franco’s 36-year dictatorship, born from the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939, while Real were considered, as Ball pointed out in his research, friends of fascism. While most historians agree that Franco did not have a preferred team to support, his regime benefitted enormously from Real Madrid’s success in Europe, particularly after the inception of the European Cup, which the Madrid-based club won five times in a row in the competition’s first five years. Franco understood the importance and significance of football, and how Real’s on-field triumphs positively impacted his political group’s image internationally. For example, Spain were awarded the hosting rights of the 1982 FIFA World Cup in 1964, 11 years before Franco’s death in 1975. This was only 28 years after Franco’s troops arrested and executed Barcelona president Josep Sunyol, who was a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia, a leftwing group that, to this day, advocates for Catalan independence. Even before Franco, however, regional languages and identities in Spain were restrained as Barcelona positioned themselves against the government’s tyranny, leading to the club coming up with its M s que un club (More than a club in English) motto.
Figo, the pig’s head and Di Stefano
While Spain’s political history is at the foundation of this rivalry, the football played between the two great clubs has become equally as important to the way it is perceived today. There are 17 players who have pulled on both team’s jersey in their careers, but perhaps no piece of business done between Barca and Real is as renowned as Luis Figo’s direct transfer from the Catalan giants to Los Blancos in 2000. Discussions of the Portuguese superstar’s potential switch to Madrid first started during then-presidential candidate Florentino Perez’s campaign to succeed Lorenzo Sanz. Figo’s agent controversially confirmed that an agreement was in place for his client to join Real if Perez was elected. It is understood that Figo was paid 2.2 million to agree to the proposal, and that the binding stipulated he would need to pay 28.1 million to Perez if he broke the terms of the agreement. Despite Figo’s adamant denial of his agent’s words, the only way Barcelona could hang on to the former Sporting Lisbon player was to pay the penalty clause. In an interview with a media publication on 23 July 2000, then-president of the Blaugrana Joan Gaspart suggested Figo wanted an exorbitant amount of money to remain at the club. The next day, he was unveiled as a Real Madrid player. Perhaps still considered the most controversial transfer in history, Figo’s return to the Camp Nou in 2003 caused a global stir when Barcelona ultras greeted him with merciless hostility. Items from the stands were launched in his direction throughout the encounter, including a knife and a whisky bottle, and, famously, a pig’s head! Standing beside him during his presentation at Real was legendary Argentine-born striker Alfredo Di Stefano, who joined the club as a player in 1953 after Barcelona initially struck a deal for his signature with River Plate, the last FIFA-affiliated club he played for. FIFA appointed a mediator named Armando Munoz Calero to oversee what became an intense transfer battle, with it eventually decided by the former president of the Spanish Football Federation to allow the forward to play for Real for three years and then for Barca for the three years that followed. Despite all parties agreeing to the deal, furious Barcelona members made their discontent known, with then-president Enric Marti Carreto eventually forced to resign. The incident further strained relations between the two sides as Real went on to become significantly more successful than their rivals, especially on the global stage.
Messi & Guardiola vs Ronaldo & Mourinho
In what was arguably the most enthralling period of Barcelona and Real’s rivalry in recent history, supporters in Spain and around the world got to see two of the sport’s all-time greats clash at least twice a season for nine straight seasons after Ronaldo joined Los Blancos in a thenclub-record transfer from Manchester United in 2009. During the time they both played in Spain, Messi scored 472 goals for Barca and Ronaldo netted on 450 occasions for Real, with every ElClasico in that spell as captivating as the last. There was Pep Guardiola, who stood for beautiful possession football, and Jose Mourinho, the antagonist who arrived in Spain in 2010 seemingly with the sole purpose of disrupting the natural order, which, back then, was Barcelona being the best team in the world and possibly in history. After a treble in his first season in 2008/09, Guardiola was hailed a genius. Mourinho, who’d interviewed for the Blaugrana job prior to Guardiola’s appointment, was a win-at-all-costs manager. Even if he did leave Spain three years later with only three trophies, everyone remembers the peak of their conflict in 2011 when four ElClasicos were played over a hot-blooded 18 days! The greatest fixture in world football, the sport’s leading players all going face to face four times in less than three weeks. Famously, after one too many jabs thrown in his direction from Mourinho, Guardiola delivered one of the most iconic pre-match press conferences in history, in which he sarcastically called his counterpart “the chief” and the “f ****** man”.