I don't have a great working knowledge of Catalan footballers. I know Puyol bleeds Catalan colors. What great footballers have come up through the Barca youth system? Also which footballers that may have come from another Catalan or Basque side, have played for Barca? Also are the Basque part of Catalonia? Sorry for all these history threads, but I'm a History teacher.....so I'm fascinated by this stuff.
I wasn't sure. Isn't Basque country border France in the North/Northwestern part of Spain? And isn't Catalonia the Eastern/Northeastern part of Spain? Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone.
Great players from the Barca youth system: Amor, Guardiola, Sergi, De la Peña, Puyol, Xavi, Reina, Víctor Valdés and Gabri. Basque side, have played for Barca: Zubizarreta, Txix Beguiristain, José Marí Bakero, Jose Mari, Escurza and Goikoetxea. Link: http://www.danbbs.dk/~salvador/Html/html31.htm
Man, I love Pep Guardiola. I keep holding out hope that he would one day come play for the Chicago Fire. He'd bring back that azulgrana passion that we lost when Stoichkov left the club. I've mentioned it several times to our General Manager already.
As far as Catalan players go, Amor & De La Peña both are/were good players, but they're not Catalan. Rexach would definitely qualify. Guardiola has been my favorite. Puyol happens to be making a good case for himself
You can't forget some of the great keepers Barcelona has had, both catalonians and basques... Sadurni, Ramallets, Urruti, Artola... _____________ Blau i Grana és un crit valent! Blau i Grana Visca el Barça sempre cridarem!
i beleive Jordi qualifies as Catalan since i think i remember seeing him don the shirt of the Catalan Regional Team a year or two ago when they played the Basque Region/Country in a friendly game. This obviously confused me as he is Dutch by birth and plays for the dutch national team. I don't know if Hristo has done the same........ I would have to say Pep Guardiola of past stars, Xavi Hernandez and Puyol of the current crop. Even though I'm not a Barca fan, the last two players are probably the best in their positions in Europe. Maybe I say this because they also played for the national team.......
Thanks for including Charlie Rexach. Most definately must be added to the list. I don't think he is catalan, but another great was Alesanko. One of the most natural Libero's, aside from Beckenbaur, that I have ever seen play the game. As far as basque's go, I think "Pichi" Alonso is basque (played for Real Sociedad) and you can't forget "Urruti" (RIP - trained me a few times. Died in car crash a few years ago.) One of the great goalkeepers in Barca history. Paul
and player who came form madrid should be listed as to be thetrongrst part of spain luis enrique schuster in the future Solari
and the player who came from Athletico has been the strongest part of your team --> Raul Gonzalez Blanco not to mention Judas (Figo) from Barca too...... .....and if we go further back, Di Stefano was Barcelona's until Madrid stole him.... i'm not even a Barca fan-but I'm still anti-madridista Guillermo
here i will go with pep, master of passing, long range, crisp short passing.. amor also played well for us , impressive for the national team. i watched a few matches that had asensi and i think he was a very good player.
Alexanko is Basque. And yes, Urruti has been one of the greatest keepers. I still remember when he stopped a penalty kick in Valladolid in the 87 minute to give Barcelona the league title in '85. And talking about basque players and great moments in Barça's history... Bakero in '92 with his goal in the last minute in Kaiserslautern in the second leg... that day I thought I was going to have a heart attack Blau i Grana és un crit valent! Blau i Grana Visca el Barça sempre cridarem!