The excitement is mounting as El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid approaches. The rivalry, which spans more than a century, is one of the biggest in world football. On Sunday, both sides will vie to walk away from Camp Nou with bragging rights.
Here’s everything to know about the rivalry: The rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid dates back to 1902, when the teams first met in the Copa de la Coronacion (a predecessor to the current-day Copa del Rey). Barcelona won the match 3-1 on May 13, 1902, at the La Castellana hippodrome in Madrid. It took another six meetings before they finally faced each other in La Liga on February 17, 1929.
Real won the match 2-1, thanks to Rafael Morera’s brace. The formation of Spain’s top flight that year added further intensity to the rivalry. The term El Clasico – “The Classic” in Spanish – first appeared in a local newspaper during the 1960s.
By that time, the match had been long considered a huge derby. The rivalry is now recognised as one of the biggest in world sport and, in the last two decades, has featured the era of Pep Guardiola vs Jose Mourinho in the dugouts and the small matter of Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch. Madrid and Barcelona are the two largest cities in Spain – this is at the root of their rivalry, which also has deep political undertones.
In the 1930s, the divide between the two cities deepened. FC Barcelona, founded in 1899, came to symbolise Catalan independence, and Real, which came into existence three years later, represented Spanish nationalism. The conflict between Real Madrid and Barcelona has long surpassed the sporting dimension, so much that elections to the clubs’ presidencies have been strongly politicised.
In recent times, the two clubs have been in a bitter war of words and ongoing legal disputes. Earlier this month, Real Madrid submitted a 50,000-page dossier to European football’s governing body, UEFA, urging them to conclude their ongoing investigation into the Negreira case. The case pertains to Barcelona allegedly paying millions of dollars to the company of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee, between 2001 and 2018, to try to influence referee decisions.
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