Written by: Theodore, reporter in ISFM
In many sports, like rugby and ice hockey, there are clubs that play against each other in competitions or training. But some hate each other more than others and the one sport that stands out the most is football (or soccer in the U.S.). Arsenal and Chelsea, Olympique de Marseille and Paris-Saint-Germain, Manchester City and the Red Devils/Man. United, Tottenham Spurs or Chelsea, and that is only a few! But probably the biggest one is the Barcelona and Real Madrid rivalry. These two giants have been battling it out since 1930. This one has something special that other rivals don’t have. Real Madrid is the club representing the city of Madrid, Spain’s Capital; It’s in the name just like Barcelona; it symbolises the city of Barcelona, capital of a community named Catalonia. It was a place where there was at the time an independence movement (which is actually still ongoing nowadays). That made them very different from each other and it was seen on the pitch. The two clubs’ ”hate” for one another has produced some of the greatest and most entertaining games in football history: 4-3 for Barcelona (2014), 4-2 for Real Madrid (2005) and 2-1 for Real Madrid (2013-14) (there will be a game summary posted after for one of the games). This saga really started in the 1930s. Spain had undergone some important changes, like the death of the catalane president and the Spanish civil war. If you want me to simplify this, think of it as World War 2 but in Spain. The Nationalist got help from the Nazis and Italy and the Republicans were aided by the Soviets, the Americans and Europeens. I don’t think many of you have known this and seen this but at the time, the population was really into politics and that really influenced La Liga and football in general. 13 years later, for a Copa del Generalisimo semifinal, Barca beat Madrid 3-nil in the first leg and Madrid’s goalkeeper complained about the first leg, stating that the grass was bad and it let Barcelona score easily. For the second leg, Madrid fans were crazy throwing rocks at anything the Barcelona team used; so much that the penalty box of the team was filled with coins on the ground. They were called reds, separatist and someone almost got killed by a bottle thrown by a fan. But it didn’t last long as Madrid beat them 11-1. People were mad. Real Madrid fans were banned from the Barcelona stadium. Nowadays, El Clasico isn’t as violent as it was with new safety measures being taken but the rivalry is still fearsome like Messi and Ronaldo, each played against each other in El Clasico games, Sergio Ramos or Pique, some of the best defenders in history, Zidane clashed with Ronaldinho, Araujo and Vinicius Jr… you name it! It now starts to calm down because some of the players that were rivals have either left the club or retired. Now, it starts to become evident that things are restarting, as Real Madrid got their hands on gold: Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vini Jr, Rodrigo, Valvered, Courtois, and Modric. Barcelona still has a great team with Pedri, Lewandoski, Frankie de Jong, Olmo, Lamine Yamal, and Araujo on their side. Inevitably, El Clasico still is and will probably be the greatest rivalry in history.
Written by: Theodore, reporter in ISFM
Leave a Reply