Categoría: Tienda de Fútbol Online

There’s nothing like a little bit of trivia to test your knowledge of the sport of soccer. You may say that soccer is your favorite sport, but how much do you really know? Following are some facts and tidbits that you may or may not know about soccer.

· Soccer originated generally in its present form in Britain.

· The world’s oldest club formed in 1857 is Sheffield FC

· Soccer is the most played and most watched sport on Earth

· Soccer is called football in practically every country except America, who call ‘Grid Iron’ football and football soccer.

· Famous soccer rivalries include the Old Firm (Scotland), Manchester derby, London derbies, Milan derby, Real vs Barcelona, and many more.

· Some famous soccer players: Pele, Maradonna, Charlton, Eusebio, Cruyff, Dalglish, Ronaldo, Beckham, Mattheus.

Those are some basic bits of soccer trivia and facts. How much did you know? Well, here are so more soccer facts to test your knowledge:

· The sport of Association Football (often referred to as soccer or simply football) is the most popular team sport in the world, in both number of spectators and number of active participants.

· The largest attendance for a soccer match ever was 199,854 people – Brazil v. Uruguay in the World Cup at the Maracana Municipal Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, July 1950.

· In the largest soccer tournament ever, no less than 5,098 teams competed in 1999 for the second Bangkok League Seven-a-Side Competition. Over 35,000 players involved!

· The most goals scored by one player in a single soccer match was 16

– Stephan Stanis (France) playing for Racing Club de Lens in December 1942.

· Based on video evidence, one of the fastest ever scored was in 2.8 seconds by Ricardo Olivera (Uruguay) in December 1998.

· The international governing body of soccer is the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), based in Zurich, Switzerland.

· Diego Maradona was only 16 when he made his soccer debut for Argentina.

· Soccer goalies didn’t have to wear different coloured shirts from their teammates until 1913.

· Eusebio scored 46 goals in the European Cup for Benfica.

· Chris Woods once went 1196 minutes without conceding a goal while at Rangers, from between November 26 1986 and January 31 1987.

· Ryan Giggs’ dad was a professional Rugby League player.

· In 1973, the entire Galilee team spent the night in jail for kicking their opponents during an Israeli League game.

Have you had enough soccer trivia and facts? These are only a few of the interesting soccer facts that are floating around out there.

Experience the glorious past and the vibrant present of FC Barcelona through pictures and news readily available online. Apart from the official club website, exciting and breathtaking FC Barcelona pictures are in abundance in several blogs, news sites, and websites dedicated to the club. Check out the latest FC Barcelona news in the top news sites in the world as well as in the official and other unofficial websites.

Futbol Club Barcelona, nicknamed Barça, is not as much as a football club as it is a Catalan institution. Founded in 1899, it is one of the best Spanish clubs with Real Madrid as its closest rival. At present, it home to other sports teams apart from the football club.

FC Barcelona is said to be the most popular football club in the whole of Europe. Some surveys show that it has a fan base of 44.2 million fans in the football-crazy continent alone. Hence, FC Barcelona news and Barça rumors are in great demand online. Fans are also racing to shoot photos of their beloved club during matches and sell them online. Online buyers are faced with several options.

Track Record
Barça is among the big three Spanish football club. Alongside Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, it has never been relegated or demoted from the La Liga, the premier league in Spain. All in all, the club has lifted 18 La Liga titles, a record of 24 Spanish Cups, two League Cups, and seven Spanish Super Cups.

In European leagues, FC Barcelona has won four UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups, two European Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups.

Camp Nou
The home stadium of Barça is Camp Nou, also referred to as «Nou Camp.» Constructed in 1957, it has witnessed hundreds of football matches against visiting clubs since 1857. Camp Nou is rated by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) as a five-star stadium. It can hold up to 98,772 people and is the biggest European football stadium.

Camp Nou is one of the preferred hosts of UEFA Champions League Finals. The club won their very first game at their new stadium in 1957. They thrashed Legia Warsaw of Germany, 4-2.It was built from 1954 to 1957 and was designed by a group of three architects. The stadium has also been the venue for several major music events.

There are plenty of FC Barcelona pictures with Camp Nou as the background available to fans. They come in colored and black-and-white. Sometimes, the pictures are able to capture the club in their most intense action. There is drama, joy, love, and passion in pictures. You could also easily find group and individual photos.

Latest News
In the most recent Barça news, the club bulldozed Malaga in a pre-weekend La Liga match. The resounding win catapulted the club to the topmost position in the league standings, six points ahead Real Madrid. They are slated to next face Valladolid but their recent triumph over Malaga is bound to boost their spirits prior to their anticipated UEFA Champions League quarterfinal fixture against Germany’s Bayern Munich. Browse online for photos and the latest news of the match.

Before arriving at Barcelona, Rijkaard had played in the Dutch and Italian leagues, as well as appearing in Holland’s national selection. His appointment as manager of Barcelona caused some surprise as he was considered to lack experience.

Football career

Rijkaard’s professional footballing career started at Ajax when he was given his first team debut in 1980 at the age of 17. Scoring in his first match, he went on to play a total of 24 league matches in his first season with a total of 4 goals. Two years later the team went on to win the league trophy, a feat that the team repeated the following year.

The second half of Rijkaard’s time at Ajax was spent under manager Johan Cruyff, but in 1987 Rijkaard stormed out of a training session and vowed he would never play for Cruyff again. Signing to Sporting Clube de Portugal too late in the season to play, he was immediately loaned to Zaragoza in Spain, where he played for a single season.

At the end of the season Rijkaard was signed by AC Milan, where he stayed for five years. Moving from a central defence to midfield, his aggressive play helped the team win both the Italian Serie A and the European cup on two occasions.

He returned to Ajax under Luis Van Gaal in 1993, and helped the team win the Dutch league on two occasions. His final match saw Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 in the Champions League final in 1995.

Internationally Rijkaard won 73 caps for Holland and scored 10 goals, although his success was sometimes marred by his temperament, such as when he spat at Germany’s Rudi Völler several times during the 1990 World Cup.

Coaching

After acting as assistant coach to in the Netherlands national squad he was appointed manager to the team in 1998, and although he was not considered to have enough experience for the job his team was able to make it through to the semi-finals of Euro 2000.

After losing to Italy on penalties Rijkaard quit immediately but took on the role of manager for Sparta Rotterdam for the 2001-2002 season. The season went disastrously for him and saw the team relegated to the second division for the first time in its history. He and the directors didn’t get along and with this final straw he was forced out.

His appointment as manager of FC Barcelona in 2003 caused plenty of raised eyebrows, but with two league wins and a Champions League title to his name he has firmly proved the doubters wrong.

Eidur Gudjohnsen, of course, is the answer to a well-known quiz question.   Who was the first player to come on as a substitute for his own father in an international football match?   What might be even more amazing is that it could happen again in a few years – Eidur’s son was one of the star players in the annual televised schoolboys tournament in the summer of 2008, captaining the Barcelona team.

Born in Reykjavik in 1978, Eidur Gudjohnsen was clearly always going to be a footballer and made his debut in the Icelandic League when he was only 16 years of age.   After just 17 games for his club Valur, the player had done enough to earn a transfer to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.   During his 2 seasons in Holland, however, Eidur suffered numerous injuries and was only able to complete 13 games before being transferred back to Iceland – to KR Reykjavik.

Barely had he signed, though, before he was off on his travels again – this time to England and, after a short trial, to Bolton Wanderers.   It was his success here, mainly as a bustling and determined centre forward, that brought a move to Chelsea, where he was to stay for 6 seasons. During this spell at Stamford Bridge, Gudjohnsen made a total of 268 first team appearances, scoring 78 goals.

Although originally a centre forward, Eidur always demonstrated what pundits insisted on calling ‘a surprisingly good touch for a big man’. Technically gifted, with very quick feet and, crucially, a nimble brain, the Chelsea fans warmed to the big Icelander because of his remarkable versatility.   Able to play up front, in midfield, or even on the wings, Eidur was part of the developing Chelsea team that won the league in 2005 and 2006 and the Carling Cup in 2005.

Many people were surprised when Eidur signed for Barcelona in the summer of 2006, especially when it appeared he was being seen as a direct replacement for the huge fans’ favourite, Henrik Larsen.   Initially played as a striker, he certainly had problems winning over the Barça faithful and, in his first season, a return of just 5 goals in 25 league games led to questions being asked about the player’s suitability for La Liga.

One thing that Eidur Gudjohnsen has always been, though, is determined and that played a big part in his ability to turn the difficult situation around.   By being used more in midfield, the player demonstrated his adaptability and consequently, in both 2006/07 and 2007/08, he became an important member of the squad.   Able to play in a variety of positions, and always liable to come up with a goal, Eidur Gudjohnsen is now an established Barcelona player and one whom the fans now trust totally.

Iceland’s record goal scorer, and with over 50 international caps already, and captain of the national team, Gudjohnsen has been Icelandic Player of the year three times.   It is a good bet that he will try to keep his place in the national squad until he’s able to play in the same team as his son. Now that would be a good quiz question.

FC Barcelona has Europe’s biggest football/soccer stadiums. Built in the 1950s, Camp Nou, or the New Camp has earned the fans of Barcelona the nickname of «Les Cules» – literally meaning «the arses» as the opposing supporters could see the back of the bums on seats of the loyal Barça fans from outside the stadium. Match day is a fantastic day out, especially against bitter rivals Real Madrid, or local derby matches against RCD Espanyol – indeed such is the draw of the venue, that the last world tour of U2 was performed here, due to the enormous capacity – around 99,000 people, with plans already approved to increase the capacity to 106,000. So how do I get to see a match, I hear you cry?! Well relax; there are some foolproof techniques you can employ before resorting to those ticket websites.

First of all, you can try the official website. Tickets go on sale approximately 2 weeks before match day, and you can be lucky and find seats this way. Alternatively, if you’re already in town, you can make your way down to the ticket office at the stadium – with such a high capacity, it’s rare for games to sell out – unless we’re talking about the previous fixtures of Real Madrid or a semi final in the Champions League, of course! However, this information is readily available on the website or any affiliate program of Barcelona. What I’m going to reveal are the tricks.

Season ticket holders to FC Barcelona can only ever give their ticket back to the club, or maintain that ticket with the surname. So many older generation season ticket holders, simply hold on to their relatives’ season tickets and sell on these seats on match day. Let me explain. Say my father and his 4 brothers were all season ticket holders, but of those 5 siblings, only 1 had children (me). I would renew those season tickets each year, due to their privileged location within the stands, and simply turn up 30 minutes before kick off each home game and sell on those tickets for face price, with the guarantee of having better view than the box office tickets and probably paying off my own season tickets from the profits by the end of the season. This is perfectly legal within the eyes of the club and the governing bodies of football, as long as money doesn’t change hands. So those clever OAP’s you see hanging around the metro station are the ones with the best tickets! The security guards at the turnstiles know the score, but as long as they haven’t seen money changing hands, then its fine by them. This is the best way to get tickets for the match, as you are effectively escorted in by the seller (you will sit next to them), so no security risks with regards fake tickets. It does however, have its risks in that if anyone sees you pay for the ticket, then you run the risk of losing your money and the ticket.

Tickets for matches are released to the general public after the FC Barcelona Members can buy them. You pay an annual subscription to the club if you can’t get a season ticket (based on my previous paragraph, you won’t be surprised to hear that the waiting list for a season ticket extends back to the 1970`s) and then have first refusal for the tickets before the public. In this way, many «touts» will buy up their share of the ticket allocation, often meaning they take all of the second tier seats in the stadium or the second best seats, after the season ticket holders. They then have a mark up of around 5 Euros per ticket, which for the majority of tourists is a steal, considering the better seat you will be able to get for this first time experience.

My final tip is again, not one that is well publicised and although this means that you don’t have the choice of the better seat allocation, it’s an official way of going about getting a ticket. You may be surprised to hear that ATMs or cash machines of the bank «La Caixa» also sell FC Barcelona tickets. The Catalan bank sells concert tickets, opera entrances and theatre stalls, so it’s no surprise to be able to find seats for the football, either. The reason why I left this tip for last is that due to the previous methods, the Cash point tickets are usually always the last to be sold, meaning you will have the cheapest seats (therefore be higher up in the stadium) which is not to put you off, as any seat in the stadium is well worth the price, but just so that you know you have various options. This option, for example, is great for larger groups who all want to stay together, as it means tickets can be bought in bulk – this way guaranteeing adjacent seating arrangements.

My last tip is to wrap up warm if you happen to go to a winter fixture! Although the winters in Barcelona are fairly mild, the height of the stadium coupled with its geographic location means that often the wind chill factor is very high within the stadium.