Joan Gamper - Goal Machine

The Joan Gamper we usually see is the bespectacled, avuncular elder statesmen of Barcelona, but when he founded that eminent club he was still a player first and foremost.
In 1901-02 Barcelona enjoyed a glut of goals. They played 26 matches, losing only one, and scored in every game. They scored 146 goals in total, an average of over 5 a game.

Goals scored	Number of games
1	3
2	2
3	3
4	6
5	1
6	1
7	3
8	2
9	1
10	1
12	2
15	1

At the forefront of this goal rush was 24 year old Gamper:

Joan Gamper / Hans Camper	Switzerland	29
Bernat Lassaleta	Spain	24
Lluís d'Ossó	Catalunya	20
Udo Steinberg	Germany	19
Paul Viderkher	Switzerland	6
Joaquín García	Catalunya
George Noble	Catalunya	5
Alfonso Albéniz	Catalunya
John Parsons	Catalunya	4
James Albert Eckes	England
Stanley Harris	England
Josep Llobet	Catalunya
Arthur Leask	Catalunya	3
Henry Morris	England /Basque/Philippines	2
? Chown	?
? Catala	Catalunya
Own Goals
Josep Quirante	Catalunya	1
Josep Vidal	Catalunya
? Conarre	?
? Gener	?

The only team to defeat Barcelona's only defeat came in the final of Copa de la Coronació, beaten 2-1 by Athletic Club Bilbao in the guise of Bizcaya.

El Gran Pattullo

Glaswegian George Pattullo travelled to Catalunya due to his connections in the coal trade. He was a noted tennis player, who played casual football for an ex-pats team. The story goes that Pattullo played in goal, and that in one game, with his team 5-1 down, he swapped places with the centre forward at half time and scored 5 goals. Joan Gamper saw the performance and persuaded Pattullo to turn out for Barca.
 Pattullo made his debut in September 1910. During the 1910-11 season Pattullo scored 41 times in only 20 appearances as Barcelona won the Campionat de Catalunya.
A confirmed amateur who declined or refunded expenses, Pattullo returned to Scotland at the end of the season.
Remarkably in 1912 he travelled back to Barcelona in order to appear in the semi final of the Copa Pirineos against Espanyol. He scored twice as Barcelona won 3-2. Pattullo did not appear in the final.
His overall record for Barcelona was 43 goals in 23 games between 1910 and 1912. 

Pattullo served with distinction in the 1914-18 War. He was affected by poisonous gas and there is no record of him playing any further football. In the 1920s he returned to Spain and was manager of Baleares FC in Mallorca in 1930. 

Acknowledgements to Alan Pattullo and Gavin Jamieson.

Barcelona's Stadia

Velódromo de la Bonanova (1899)
In their first ever match, (08.12.99) Barcelona played a scratch team of English expatriates (some of whom were founder members of the club) in Velódromo de la Bonanova in the Turo Parc area. For the uninitiated a velodrome is a cycling track, as you can see from the photographs above, which shows the banked track in the background. 

Hipodrom De Can Tunis (1900-01)
Matches were also occasionally played at this former horseracing track.

Camp del Hotel Casanovas (1900-01)
The estate of Hotel Casanovas was near to where Sant Pau hospital now stands. Walter Wild, the club president, negotiated the use of some of this land as a football ground.Barcelona first played there on 18.11.1900  The result was 0-0 against Athletic Club. According to contemporary reports the attendance was about 4,000.

Campo de la Carretera de Horta (1901-1905)
The club played its first game here on 23.11.01 against the Calliope (crew of a British ship). Barca won 4-0. Joan Gamper scored the first goal. The club had to move on when the land was developed.

Campo de la calle Muntaner (1905-1909)
Scene of the first ever Barcelona v (Real) Madrid (FC) clash, a 5-2 win for Barca in 1906. Later became the home of Club Deportivo Español .

Plaza De Armas (1909)
  Occasional use only

 La Fuxarda (1909)
The municipal stadium was used for 2 games against Sparta Prague. 

Campo de la Calle Industria (1909-22)

The first ground owned outright by the club had a capacity of 6,000 and featured a novel double-decker stand. It was the first ground in Spain to have floodlights. The beginnings were more modest, though- initially there were no changing rooms or running water!

The ground was officially opened on 14.03.09, and was used until the club's success saw them outgrow the stadium in 1922. 

Camp de Les Corts  (1922 -57)
The club therefore started the construction of a new stadium, and  Les Corts opened on  20.05.22, Barcelona playing Saint Mirren. The initial capacity was 22,000.
In 1925, a display of Catalan nationalism on the part of the crowd at Les Corts led to the authorities closing the stadium  for 6 months (later reduced to 3).

Joan Gamper

Hans Kamper was instrumental in the foundation of FC Zurich in 1896. He was an all round sportsman, interested in athletics, cycling, tennis, golf and even Rugby (which he played when living in France).

In 1899 he travelled to Barcelona on route to Africa. Whilst he was in Catalunya he decided to form another team to satisfy his passion for football. Consequently FC Barcelona was founded.  

Thanks to Catalan attempts to pronounce his name, Hans Kamper became Kans or Joan Gamper. He played 48 games for Barcelona (1899 -1903), scoring over 100 goals. As a player he was a winner of Copa Macaya (1902) and Copa Barcelona (1903)

An affluent businessman and naturalized Catalan, Gamper was president of Barcelona on 5 occasions (1908-09, 1910-13, 1917-19, 1921-23 and 1924-25).

During the 1920's the right-wing Government punished Barcelona for the Catalan nationalist tendencies of their supporters. Their stadium was closed for 6 months.
Gamper later suffered depression and had financial difficulties. He took his own life in 1930. 

FC Escocès

FC Sant Andreu was formed in 1899 by Scottish textile workers living in Barcelona.
The following year the team was known as FC Escocès.
FC Escocès' first official fixture was on February 2nd 1900- their opponents were Barcelona (playing only their sixth game). Two goals from Joan Gamper won the game for Barça.
Escocès record that season was played 10, won 7 lost 3 (two defeats at the hands of Barcelona and one against HMS Calliope).
FC Escocès only lasted a season. This was largely due to a boycott imposed on Scottish players by Barcelona. Aggrieved at Escocès players turning out for their main rivals Català, Barcelona would not play against any team that featured Scottish players. In a case of cut off your nose to spite your face they also refused to use Scots players themselves.
When FC Escocès was dissolved the ban was lifted, and Barcelona took on three former Escocès players with considerable success.
Goalkeeper John Hamilton initially joined Hispania, winning the Copa Macaya in 1901. On transferring to Barcelona Hamilton converted to a right full back, and was in the Barcelona side that won the Catalàn championship in 1904.
The versatile Geordie Girvan scored the first ever goal for Barça in an official competition, during a Copa Macaya game on January 20, 1901.
David Mauchan was noted for his skillful ball control and great strength.
Mauchan and Hamilton both went on to be referees.

Barcelona

Hans Kamper was a keen all round sportsman who had captained FC Basle and helped to found FC Zurich in his native Switzerland. 
As a 21 year old in 1898 he was travelling to Africa to establish a sugar trading business, but he stopped off to visit an uncle in Barcelona and never left. 
He played some football and  founded a sports magazine, Los Deportes.
On 22nd October 1899 Kamper (or to use the Catalan version of his name, Joan Gamper) placed this advert in Los Deportes: 

SPORT NOTES

Our friend and partner, Mr. Kans Kamper, from the Foot-Ball Section of the <<Sociedad Los Deportes>> and former Swiss champion, wishing to organize some matches in Barcelona, requests that everyone who likes this sport contact him, come to this office Tuesday and Friday nights from 9 to 11.

On 8th December 1899 FC Barcelona played their first ever game, a 10 a side against a team of English settlers. They lost 1-0 to an Arthur Witty goal.  There's a match report here: 

http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1899/12/09/pagina-7/33401233/pdf.html

1903

Barcelona won their first trophy, the Copa Macaya (a championship of Catalonia) in 1901–02.
It's probably more than a coincidence that Gamper's old team, FC Basle, the club he founded in Switzerland (FC Zurich) and Barcelona all share the same club colours.