Categoría: Tienda de Fútbol Online

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.

As long as there have been sport teams, there have been rivalries. Whether it’s the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox or the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, the two rival teams inevitably end up meeting again and again, forming an ongoing heated rivalry that delights fans of the sport. One such rivalry is between Spanish football teams FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

FC Barcelona (also known as Barça by its fans) and Real Madrid are two of the earliest Spanish football teams, both forming in the 1890s. From the start, the two teams were seen as representatives of two rival regions of Spain, the ancient kingdoms of Castile and Catalonia. Both teams were part of La Liga, a Spanish football league and a rivalry that went far beyond football quickly took root.

It was during and after the Spanish Civil War that the rivalry took on more political overtones. Dictator Francisco Franco banned all peripheral languages, such as Catalan, the language of Barcelona. Catalonia had long been associated with more progressive fashions and political ideas, such as democracy-which was the diametric opposite of Franco’s dictatorial regime. FC Barcelona suffered as a result of being a part of the Catalonian culture. Real Madrid, on the other hand, was seen by many Spaniards (and Catalonians in particular) as the «establishment» club. Though Franco seemed to favor Real Madrid, members of both teams suffered under his regime.

The fierce rivalry continued into the 1950s when both clubs sought to sign Alfredo Di Stefano to play for them. Real Madrid eventually won out and Alfredo Di Stefano went on to lead them to many wins. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid went head-to-head twice at the European Cup in the 1960s, with Real Madrid winning one and FC Barcelona winning the other. The two teams clashed once again over a player in 2000 when Luis Figo left FC Barcelona and signed with Real Madrid. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid competed against each other again in the UEFA Champions League semi-final in 2002, with Real Madrid getting the win. The Spanish media dubbed the match «The Match of the Century».

In the mid-2000s, the rivalry ascended to further heights when it acquired its own name, El Clasico. The term El Clasico was traditionally assigned to any South American football rivalry, but the growth of football in the Americas coupled with these two great teams’ rivalry led to the coining of the term as applied to FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. This was mostly a marketing scheme communicated via GolTV, an all-football satellite channel, but the term has been embraced by fans worldwide.

El Clasico shows no signs of slowing. To this very day, the two teams inevitably seek each other out on the field to find out who is the best team in Spain. Sometimes FC Barcelona wins and sometimes Real Madrid wins, but ultimately football fans worldwide are the ones who win whenever these two giants meet on the field.

Arsenal Football Club or Arsenal FC is a Professional English football club which plays in the English Premier League A division. This London club joined the first ever club from the South of England in 1893. Furthermore, since enrolling the First Division in 1904, they have gained the second most points. The club is regarded as one of the most successful clubs in Football.

So These are 5 Amazing Facts you probably didn’t know about Arsenal FC.

1. The club was not intentionally founded to play Football
   The Arsenal FC club was originally for the purpose of mourning the 1886th victim of the Satanic cult. The club,in fact, was originally founded by a secret society. However, the official statement of the club was announced not before 1886.
2. The haunting Stadium
   Before the division of the continents in ancient times, it is believed that the North London was the homeland to the earliest Aboriginal Americans. Also, there have been a lot of dead bodies of the Ancient Indians buried below the stadium ground.
3. Bin Laden was a Die Hard Gunner
   It would surprise you hearing the fact that Bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda group, was actually a regular season holder of Arsenal FC. It is also believed that he had attended the several major games of Arsenal. After the revelation of this unknown fact, the club finally decided to ban Bin Laden from attending the Highbury Stadium which was the previous official stadium of Arsenal Football Club.
4. The golden Premier League Trophy
   The 2003-2004 premier league season is probably the life-memorably season for the whole football fans around the world. Arsenal successfully managed to win the Premier League title without losing a single match in 38 games played. Arsenal FC, however, grabbed the record of a record of 26 wins and 12 draws. The club was handed the only Golden Premier League trophy by the FA. Till date, not a single English Football Club has beaten this record. The club’s longest undefeated run was 49 games until the controversial penalty of Ruud van Nistelrooy ended the record. Since then, there has been a great rivalry between these two clubs.
5. The one and only English Team that hasn’t been Relegated
   Arsenal Football club was finally promoted to the first division in 1919. Since then, the club has never got relegated. Probably there will be the only team in the history of Premier League not to downgrade its position. The team has been in the top flight English football since 1919-1920.

So these are the best 5 Facts about Arsenal FC.

Another mind-blowing fact is the current stadium, Emirates Stadium, is the second largest stadium in England after Old Trafford of Manchester Untied. This stadium has a total capacity of 60,432 while Old Trafford, The Manchester United Stadium, has little more with the total capacity of 75,635.