FCBARCELONA.CAT

16.05.2009 23:53

19th League title

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Barça has won the Spanish League championship for the 19th time in the club’s history after Madrid’s defeat this Saturday at El Madrigal. Barça stands second in the list of all-time winners and was also the first club to claim the title.

The FC Barcelona Museum now houses a new trophy. It is the League Championship, the 19th in the club’s history. Only Madrid, with 31, has more, and after Barça come Atlético Madrid (9), Bilbao (8) and Valencia (6).

The last time the Catalans won the competition was in 2005/06, the season they also triumphed in the Champions League. In the previous campaign Frank Rijkaard’s side had broken a six-year League title drought.

First for Barça

Barça and the League title go back a long way, and indeed the Catalan club won the first ever in 1929. However, they then had to wait 16 years for the next one in 1944/45 before winning the competition again in 1947/48 and 1948/49.

Fantastic Fifties

The 1950s was a golden age for FC Barcelona. First of all the ‘5 Cups Team’ won the League twice in 1952 and 1953, and then Helenio Herrera’s side were champions twice more in 1959 and 1960.

No more until Cruyff

By contrast the 1960s saw little silverware and no League championships. The drought came to an end in the 1973/74 season, when the team led by Johan Cruyff and which beat Madrid 5-0 at Bernabéu walked off with Barça’s next League title. Yet once more the wait for the next one was long, and it was not until 1984, with Terry Venables in the dugout, that the Catalans were again League champions.

Dream Team four

In the 1990s Barça went back to dominating the League. The legendary Dream Team won four titles on the spin between 1990 and 1994, and four years later Louis van Gaal’s side added the first of another two.