Today is the 59th edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy. The most culé tournament, the one that welcomes the team after the summer tours. The tournament that historically served to introduce new signings to the fans after the summer break is no longer the same in the internet age, but it is still the game of choice opens the season.
This August 12th the Trofeu Joan Gamper 2024 will be played at the Montjuic Stadium against AS Monaco, being the first time since 1991 that a French team has participated in the trophy and the first time it has participated directly in the final since the semifinal format was eliminated in 1997.
The event, as has been the tradition for several years, will begin with a special program starting at 6:00 p.m., which will include the presentation of the team and various recreational and musical activities. The match itself is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the Barça One platform, available in several languages and accessible in Europe, the United States and Latin America.
And while we’re sure you’ll be following along , today we wondered who Joan Gamper was, to add a bit of context by telling the storied story of the club’s founder, a key man to the history of Spanish soccer who came to a tragic end.
Gamper, another Joan from the north to Barça
Hans-Max Gamper Haessig, known in Catalonia as Joan Gamper (as, later, would also come Johan Cruyff), was an important Swiss sportsman. Born in Switzerland, November 22, 1877 in Winterthur, Switzerland. In his home country he played as a striker for Swiss teams such as FC Basel and FC Excelsior, and also founded FC Zürich before moving to Barcelona in 1899.
In Barcelona , Gamper became involved in the promotion of soccer, a sport that at the time was little known in the region, to the point that on November 29, 1899, he founded Futbol Club Barcelona together with a group of soccer enthusiasts. In addition to being a founder, he was a player and captain of the team in its early years.
He would later assume the presidency up to five times on five occasions (1908-1909, 1910-1913, 1917-1919, 1921-1923, and 1924-1925). During his tenure, Gamper was instrumental in the consolidation of the club, both in sporting and institutional terms. Under his leadership, Barça established itself as a club of reference in Catalonia and Spain, and promoted values that transcended sport, such as Catalan nationalism, which led to the birth of the team’s slogan “més que un club, which refers to that transcendence beyond sports.
The president exiled by a dictatorship
It was precisely this social role or the Catalanist side, or rather, the consequences of the oppressors of this ideology, that brought about the tragic end of the president. In 1925, during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, Gamper was forced to resign from the club’s presidency after the Barcelona crowd whistled the Spanish national anthem at a friendly match.
This led to his temporary exile and his removal from the club he had founded, with Primo de Rivera prohibiting him from participating in the club’s activities once he returned to Barcelona .
Affected by personal problems related to this issue and economic problems, linked to the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929, which caused him to lose his fortune, Gamper committed suicide in 1930, shocking the Barcelona society of the time.
However, his legacy is unquestionable . FC Barcelona has paid tribute to him in multiple ways, including the Joan Gamper Trophy itself, a pre-season tournament named after him. In addition, his influence lives on in the identity and values of the club, with the slogan “més que un club” (more than a club) still in force, and with the history of Barça’s founder, which confirms him as one of the key people in Spanish sport.