Spanish giants Barcelona have always been a very popular team, they play in the La Liga and their home stadium is Camp Nou which holds up to 99,786 people. The squad play in their home Barcelona football shirt as part of the Barcelona football kit. The home shirt is a mixture of blue and red and has a great design. They have had a fantastic record in football and have never been relegated from the top Spanish league La Liga, along with their rivals Real Madrid. These two teams have a huge rivalry and whenever these teams are put together for a match against each other it is named 'El Clasico'. In 2009 Barcelona were the first team to win the treble, they won the Copa Del Rey, La Liga and the UEFA Champion's League. Barcelona have had their fair share of top players over the years including the famous Ronaldinho who played for them from 2003- 2008. He won the Ballon D'or in 2005 and has also been named as a FIFA world player. Young children and footballers idolised him and his skills as a football player as he played so during his time in his Barcelona football kit. He played as number 10 in the Barcelona football shirt and enjoyed his time there netting 70 times in 145 appearances.
In July 2008 Ronaldinho rejected an offer from Manchester City and decided to accept a large offer made to him by Italian side AC Milan, July was the last time he played in his Barcelona football shirt. In 2005, Lionel Messi who had played football since he was very young got moved up to the Barcelona first team and started to get paid first team rates. At first he played as number 19 in his Barcelona football kit, up until Ronaldinho's departure in 2008 when he inherited number 10. Messi quickly established what it was he needed to do to fill the shoes of the former number 10 and over the years became a star on the pitch and an idol to the fans. He scored in nearly almost every match and when he was not scoring he was assisting his fellow team mates fantastically. Sports retailers luck was in as Lionel Messi became more and more popular, they started getting order after order of the Messi 10 Barcelona football shirt and the Barcelona football kit. Messi was named as four time Ballon D'or winner including 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He has also won many more awards and has scored approximately 212 goals in 242 domestic league appearances.
Since Messi's success Barcelona are one of the most well-known teams in the Spanish League with the Barcelona football shirt often competing with the Real Madrid football shirt in terms of purchase. However, as of late Barcelona's form has not been brilliant. They have not played appallingly, but it is a shock to see one of the best teams in the world losing games. One of the main points to this story was the 4-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champion's League semi-final first leg on Tuesday night, even Lionel Messi looked all out of sort. It was unlike the Spanish giants to give away so many goals, it was their worst defeat since they lost 4-0 to Dynamo Kiev in 1997.
In the game before that Barcelona played Paris Saint Germain where they drew 1-1 but won a 3-3 aggregate using the away goals rule, which gave them the pass to the semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich. Lionel Messi did not play the full 90 minutes as he had been injured previously but came on the 60th minute but did not manage to make much impact. On the 1st May 2013 they will have got to overcome the 4-0 deficit which could prove to be quite a challenge even though they will be playing in the Barcelona home football kit and playing at their home ground. Hopefully Barcelona will be able to turn around their recent bad form and find their feet, we are sure Lionel Messi will soon be back on top and netting goal after goal again. The retailers in the sports industry will be waiting for the star player and the team to find their excellent form again so orders for the Barcelona football kit and Barcelona football shirt will shoot back up.
Do you think Barcelona can turn over the 4-0 aggregate score? Do you think this could be the end of Barcelona's domination?
Are Bayern Munich now the best football side in the world? Let us know what you think, we'd love to know. Show your support for Barcelona and purchase an official Barcelona football shirt now.
Emily Millington writes exclusively for Soccer Box. Get your Barcelona football kit here and much more, like a large range of merchandise including official Barcelona training wear.
