Rafael Márquez

In his first season with Barcelona, Márquez appeared 21 times, helping the team to a second place finish in La Liga. During his second season, he was moved from his natural position as a center back to a defensive midfield role, due to injuries to players Thiago Motta, Edmílson and Gerard López. He completed a great season, being one of the main players that helped Barcelona win its 17th Spanish League on 14 May 2005 after a 1-1 tie with Levante. After an injury in his left knee, he returned after a month to play against Milan in the first leg of the 2006 UEFA Champions League Semifinal. Barcelona, playing away at the San Siro, won 1-0.

Márquez was present in the UEFA Champions League final on 17 May 2006 for Barcelona, in which they won the tournament over Arsenal. This achievement made him the first ever Mexican football player ever to ever win this competition, something Hugo Sánchez was not able to do during his time in La Liga with Real Madrid. After the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Barcelona extended his contract for the following 4 years to €38.5 million which will see his contract end in June 2010. Despite sustaining injuries, he was rumored to be up for sale at the end of the 2006-07 season. His future at Barça was up in the air until the 2007 Copa America, where Márquez regained his best form and was one of the best players of the competition, helping Mexico to an acceptable 3rd place.

In the 2007-08 season, Márquez got off to an excellent start, as he managed to form a solid partnership with new signing Gabriel Milito while captain Carles Puyol was out injured. However, constant injuries threw off his form. Márquez's success declined with the rest of the season leading Barcelona to end up in 3rd place after a miserable second half where injuries lead to his contribution being negligible. Even so, it appears new coach Josep Guardiola will continue to rely on his contributions; with the departure of Ronaldinho, Márquez has become the last original signing of the Rijkaard era to remain on the team. He appears to be Guardiola's first choice at center back along with captain Puyol for the 2008-09 season. On 13 December 2008, Márquez played his 200th match for Barcelona in the clash against Real Madrid, which they won 2-0. On 28 April 2009, Márquez got injured in a match against Chelsea in the semi-final of the Champions League. Márquez was told he needed surgery on his left knee, forcing him to miss the rest of the season. Barcelona would go on to win a historic treble after winning the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, in which Márquez was present but was sidelined. Márquez also received an offer from Italian side Fiorentina. However, Márquez admits he would like to end his career at Barcelona and insists he is not concerned about the fact that his current contract runs out during the summer of 2010.

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Valdés : The Goal Keeper

The Spanish football goalkeeper who plays for Barcelona of the Spanish La Liga. He is the most successful goalkeeper in Barcelona's history, having won 3 La Liga titles, 2 UEFA Champions League titles, and 1 Copa del Rey. He is also one of the few goalkeepers to have played in a European Cup final without conceding a goal. Before joining the principal team in 2002–03 season, Víctor played for the youth teams and Barcelona B. Currently, he has a contract with Barcelona until 2014.

Valdés set the Barça club record for not conceding a goal in European competition with a clean sheet against Rangers on 7 November 2007, which saw him re-write the Barça record books after not conceding a goal for 466 minutes. Unfortunately, Valdés was beaten twice by Lyon' captain Juninho through a 45-yard free kick and a late penalty at the Stade de Gerland ending his streak.

On 1 April 2008, Valdés made his 250th appearance for Barça. Despite being a regular in the Barcelona squad, he has never been capped for Spain at senior level, with Iker Casillas of Real Madrid and Pepe Reina of Liverpool being the preferred goalkeepers. During the 2008–09 season, he was the Zamora (La Liga's top goalkeeper) for the second time in his career, beating out the likes of Iker Casillas and Diego López who are among his national team competitors.

On May 27, 2009, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League Final to complete an unprecedented Treble of La Liga, Champions League, and Copa del Rey. In the match, Valdes made two crucial saves from Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in both halves. In the first half, he saved a long-range free kick, and in the second half he saved Ronaldo from a tight angle following a low cross from Dimitar Berbatov.

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when Cruyff was replaced by Bobby Robson

Cruyff was briefly replaced by Bobby Robson, who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996–97. He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution, while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available.

Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time as he left for Internazionale. However, new heroes such as Luís Figo, Patrick Kluivert, Luis Enrique and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey and La Liga double in 1998. In 1999, the club celebrated its 'centenari', winning the Primera División title and Rivaldo became the fourth Barça player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000.

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Champions League Final tickets, Champions League tickets, Real Madrid Tickets

Barcelona suffered their first La Liga defeat of the season as they lost 2-1 at Atletico Madrid, but head coach Pep Guardiola refused to be too concerned by the setback.

Barca now lead the standings by just two points, after Real Madrid eased to a 3-0 win at lowly Xerez on Saturday evening.

A calm Guardiola told reporters: "I want to congratulate Atletico for the big game they've had, they have been very well organised and deserved the victory.

"We were not quite right and Atletico played well, although I do not have too much criticism for my team.

"We made scoring chances in the first half, but in the second half just a few and we need to know why.

"We're a team that has always creates many scoring chances in each game. We have been at a good level.

"We're always prepared for a defeat. It's the first of the season, but we can take positives from it."

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Frank Rijkaard 2003–08

Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch football manager and former player. Rijkaard has played for Ajax, Real Zaragoza and Milan, and represented his national side 73 times, scoring 10 goals. In his coaching career, he has been at the helm of the Dutch national side, Sparta Rotterdam and Barcelona. He is currently the head coach of Turkish Süper Lig side Galatasaray. His mother is Dutch and his father is Surinamese.

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Rijkaard stayed at Ajax for seven and a half seasons, as a central defender (1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85), a right midfielder and a central midfielder (1985–86). During this period he won the Dutch league championship three times (1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85) and the Dutch Cup (KNVB-Cup 3 times (1982–83, 1985–86, 1986–87). In the 1986–87 season he won the European Cup II (Cup Winners' Cup) with Ajax (Final: Ajax 1-0 Lokomotiv Leipzig). In September 1987, what would have been Rijkaard's third season (1987–88) under Dutch football legend Johan Cruijff as head coach, Rijkaard stormed off the training field and vowed never to play under him again. He was signed by the Portuguese club Sporting CP, but he signed too late to be eligible to play in any competition. He was immediately loaned out to Spanish team Real Zaragoza, but upon completing his first season at Zaragoza, was signed by Italian side Milan.

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Under Cruyff's guidance

Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley with a legendary free kick goal from Dutch international Ronald Koeman. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies (not to mention the disastrous 4–0 defeat in the UEFA Champions League 1994 final against Milan) and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in Cruyff's departure.

Cruyff was briefly replaced by Bobby Robson, who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996–97. He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution, while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available.

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Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time as he left for Internazionale. However, new heroes such as Luís Figo, Patrick Kluivert, Luis Enrique and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey and La Liga double in 1998. In 1999, the club celebrated its 'centenari', winning the Primera División title and Rivaldo became the fourth Barça player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000.


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Núñez and the stabilization years

Josep Lluís Núñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objective were to develop Barça into a world-class club by giving to it financial and sporting stability.

The date was May 16, 1979, when the club won its first Cup Winners Cup by beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 4–3 in Basel in a final that has never been forgotten watched by no fewer than 30,000 travelling blaugrana fans.

In June 1982, Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. In the following season, under coach César Luis Menotti, Barcelona and Maradona won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. However, Diego's time with Barça was short-lived and he soon left for Napoli. At the start of the La Liga 1984–85 season, Terry Venables was hired as manager and he won La Liga with stellar displays by German midfielder Bernd Schuster. The next season, he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua Bucureşti during a dramatic evening in Seville.

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After the 1986 FIFA World Cup, English top scorer Gary Lineker was signed along with goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, but the team could not achieve success while Schuster was excluded from the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the 1987–88 season and replaced with Luis Aragonés. That season finished with a rebellion of the players against president Núñez, known as the Motín del Hesperia and the 1–0 victory at the Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad.
The first UEFA Champions League trophy was won by FC Barcelona in 1992 against U.C. Sampdoria.

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In 1988, Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and assembled the so-called Dream Team. He introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Begiristain, Ion Andoni Goikoetxea, Gheorghe Hagi, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov.

Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley with a legendary free kick goal from Dutch international Ronald Koeman. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies (not to mention the disastrous 4–0 defeat in the UEFA Champions League 1994 final against Milan) and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in Cruyff's departure.

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