Barcelona's 125th anniversary: Joan Gamper, the man who built the club (thanks to a magazine advert)

Friday, November 29, 2024, will mark the 125-year anniversary of the formation of Barcelona football club.

To mark the occasion, The Athletic is running a series of pieces, celebrating the people and the moments who have helped make the club what it is today.

First up is the story of Joan Gamper, the man who founded the club…

“Our friend and colleague Mr Kans Kamper, of the foot-vall section of the Sociedad de Deportes and former Swiss champion, wishing to organise some games in Barcelona, asks anybody with an affection for said sport to get in touch with him and for said purpose to come to our offices on Tuesday or Friday evenings between 9 and 11.”

So read an advert in the Barcelona-published magazine Los Deportes (Sports) on October 22, 1899.

It was placed by Swiss-born Hans (not Kans) Kamper, who had recently arrived in the city and would soon change his name to the more Catalan-sounding Joan Gamper. That ad started a process which saw him become arguably the most influential figure in FC Barcelona’s football (not foot-vall) history.

“Gamper is an icon of the club, but the fans don’t know much about him,” Spanish football historian Angel Iturriaga tells The Athletic. “They may know he was one of Barca’s founders. But not many people know he was a superb centre-forward.

“He was also a proto-sporting director before such a role existed. And he was the president who saved the club from disappearing completely in 1908.”

Legends Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi would later shape Barcelona into a unique football club, deeply connected to the surrounding region of Catalonia and widely loved around the world — but without the vision and stubbornness of Gamper, there may have never been an FC Barcelona at all.

This is his story…

Hans Maximilian Kamper was born on November 22, 1877, in Winterthur, near Zurich. Growing up, he practised many sports, including athletics, tennis and swimming, but football was his passion. After first playing for his hometown team, FC Winterthur, Kamper moved to Zurich-based FC Excelsior and in 1896, co-founded FC Zurich. He also played two games for FC Basel.


Gamper, in the middle of front row with the ball, during his time with FC Zurich (Photo: Gamper family)

“Kamper was physically strong and robust,” says Josep Bobe, a member of the club’s historical memory committee. “When Basel’s athletics track was inaugurated, he won the 200-metre race. He also won bicycle races as a youngster. When in (the French city of) Lyon for work, he played rugby. But what he really liked was to play football.”

That did not mean professionally — coming from a wealthy banking family, his ambitions stretched further. Kamper’s career plan instead involved starting an import/export business in the Spanish colony of Fernando Po (an island now called Bioko, part of Equatorial Guinea), until a stay in Barcelona in 1898 with a relative named Emilio Gaissert changed his mind.

“My grandfather’s plan was to go to Fernando Po, but the problem was he enjoyed being in Barcelona a lot,” Xavier Gamper tells The Athletic. “Gaissert convinced him he could do business with the Spanish colonies without going to Africa.”

The 21-year-old Kamper settled into life in the bustling metropolis, where booming new industries including textiles and chocolate were creating a Catalan bourgeoisie and attracting migrant workers from elsewhere in Spain and across Europe.

After finding a job as an accountant with the city’s tram company, and tweaking his name to the more Catalan-sounding Gamper, he dove into the local sporting scene, which comprised gymnastics, rowing, fencing and some cycling but very little football.

“My grandfather was annoyed when he arrived here, as nobody played the game,” Xavier says. “He founded FC Barcelona as he wanted a place to play football.”

Family legend has it that Gamper even imported the first leather footballs into the city. Along with friends, including Swiss compatriot Walter Wild, he started to play scratch games in the streets. But when they tried to join in matches organised by the Gimnasio Tolosa at the Bonanova Velodrome, they were rebuffed as foreigners, specifically protestants, who were not welcome.

That led Gamper and Wild to try the Gimnasio Sole, where Los Deportes magazine was published with his advert on October 22. A few weeks later, on November 29, 10 others showed up to a meeting to form the new club. These included locals Lluis d’Osso, Bartomeu Terrades, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet and Enric Ducay, along with English brothers John and William Parsons, Otto Kunzle from Switzerland and Otto Maier from Germany.


The Gimnasio Sole, where the first meeting of the club took place (Photo: Gamper family)

“They have been called ‘Barca’s 12 apostles’ — six Catalans and six foreigners,” says historian Iturriaga. “They started to organise the first games, and establish the institution. Walter Wild became Barca’s first president, as you had to be at least 23 years old by Spanish law. But Gamper was the most important in organising the team, on and off the pitch.”

The first game was held on December 8, at the Bonanova Velodrome, against a group of English expatriates. Barcelona lost 1-0. Many of the local players were still getting used to what was still a very new sport in Catalonia. Gamper quickly stood out for his talents, as the team began to play, and win, more games.

“The early match reports say Gamper was by far the best player,” Bobe says. “He had a lot more experience than the others, and there were games in which he scored nine goals.”

Also influential were the Witty brothers from England, Arthur and Ernest, and there is still debate over whether Barca’s ‘blaugrana’ (blue and garnet red) kit colours come from Gamper’s old team of FC Basel or the Wittys’ former Merchant Taylors’ school on Merseyside.


Gamper, again front and centre with the ball, and his Barcelona team-mates (Photo: Gamper family)

Gamper captained the team to their first trophy, the 1901-02 Copa Macaya (a tournament that later grew into the Catalan championship). Barca also reached the final of the 1902 Copa de la Coronacion (which became the Copa del Rey), with Gamper scoring in a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid in the semi-finals, the first Clasico. Records say he scored more than 100 goals in 48 matches but over time, his relationship with some local team-mates deteriorated, with religion again being a factor.

By the time Barca won their first official Catalan championship in 1905, Gamper was no longer involved. He had retired to concentrate on his growing business interests, successfully importing sugar, cocoa and other materials from Fernando Po. But the lure of football, and Barca, remained.

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During the first decade of the 20th century, several clubs battled for players and fans in the city, including Espanyol, Hispania AC, Catala FC, FC Internacional and Irish FC.

FC Barcelona’s initial success waned and in December 1908, a club meeting was called with just one item on the agenda — dissolution. Before the vote, Gamper — although he was no longer a ‘socio’ (club member) — rose to his feet and gave a rousing speech against the motion.

“The most important date in Barcelona’s history is December 2, 1908, even more important than the foundation date,” his grandson says. “He stood up and said, ‘Barca must not and cannot be allowed to die. If no one else will save it, I will’.”

Gamper assumed the presidency and took control of the club’s off-pitch affairs. He organised the financing of the construction of the club’s first proper stadium on Carrer de la Industria, using his connections to his past employer Credit Lyonnais.

“My grandfather had the idea that if Barcelona had their own stadium, they could attract all the best players in the city,” Gamper says. “And from this time, Barca started to win everything.”

From 1909, Barca won three consecutive Catalan championships. In 1910, they also won their first Copa del Rey and the Copa de Pirineos (Pyrenees Cup) for their first treble. That same year, Gamper made Catalan the official club language — part of his careful cultivating of relationships with the new social and political elite in the city, including leaders of the Lliga Regionalista Catalana party.

“Gamper connected the club to people with power and money,” says Iturriaga. “Barca became the team of the Catalan movement. Politicians were often seen at the stadium. And the number of club socios quickly grew.”

While alternating the presidency with Catalan politicians, Gamper acted as a sporting director, before such an official role existed.

Originally a gentleman-amateur himself, he accepted professionalism was coming to the sport. Future stars Paulino Alcantara, Josep Samitier and Ricardo Zamora were all persuaded to join Barca as teenagers. Coaches from England were hired and glamour friendlies were organised against top clubs from around Europe.


Ricardo Zamora was one of Barcelona’s early stars (Staff/AFP/Getty Images)

By the early 1920s, the club had outgrown their home on Carrer de la Industria. Gamper paid about half of the two million pesetas cost of constructing the new ‘Les Corts’ stadium. By November 1924, as the club marked their 25th anniversary, Barca boasted 12,000 socios. Then serving as club president for a fifth time, Gamper was honoured at an event at the stadium as the most important figure in the club’s establishment.

Six months later, Gamper’s official relationship with the club was cut forever.

The trigger was an exhibition game he organised against local rivals Jupiter, to raise funds for the Orfeo Catala choral society on June 14, 1925.

When a British Navy band hired to provide music started playing the Spanish national anthem, the crowd began to whistle. The musicians switched to God Save the King, and the locals gave them a standing ovation.

“It was during (General Miguel) Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and the authorities thought this was disgraceful,” Bobe says. “Some wanted FC Barcelona to be completely dissolved forever. The final punishment was a six-month ban from all club activity. Gamper was also told to leave the country.”

Forced into exile back in Switzerland, Gamper returned secretly from time to time to see his French-Swiss wife Emma Pilloud and sons Marcel and Joan Ricard. The new Barca hierarchy distanced themselves from the club’s founder, to keep onside with the authorities. By 1929, when Barcelona won the first La Liga title, he was legally permitted to return but still had to pay for a ticket to watch ‘his’ club play at the stadium he had half-financed himself.

Gamper’s business interests also took a hit. Local politicians were no longer so friendly. In 1927, the site of the club’s previous Carrer de la Industria stadium (which he still part-owned) was sold at a below-market price. Stock market investments initially worked out well, but the 1929 Wall Street Crash devastated him financially and contributed to his death by suicide, aged just 52, in the July of the following year.

“As we say nowadays, my grandfather became depressed,” Gamper says. “He had a lot of shares, and the 1929 crash bankrupted him. After he died, my grandmother imposed a silence on the family. At that time, religion was very important, and suicide was a sacrilege.”

The manner of Gamper’s death also affected his public reputation, especially after the Spanish Civil War was followed by the dictatorship of General Franco.

In 1957, when Barcelona moved to a huge new stadium, the club debated naming it after the most important president in their history. But with the taboo remaining around Gamper, everyone just called it the Camp Nou (New Ground).


Camp Nou this month during its major renovation (Urbanandsport/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

“It was during Franco’s dictatorship and my grandfather had four sins: he was protestant, a foreigner, associated with Catalanism and he committed suicide,” Gamper says. “So the club was not allowed to put his name on the new stadium.”

In 1966, Gamper’s name was given to a pre-season friendly the club still host every August. Forty years later, during Joan Laporta’s first presidency, the club’s training ground was officially named the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

“The training ground is named after Joan Gamper, but it is not enough,” his grandson says. “He deserves to have his name on the stadium. But we do not have €300million to pay for naming rights, like Spotify. I have my own business, but I’m not Elon Musk or Bill Gates.”

The family retain a good relationship with the club, and Xavier and other members were officially invited to August’s Gamper Trophy game against Monaco, of France’s Ligue 1. They will also be present at Friday’s 125th anniversary celebrations, including Xavier’s brother Marcel, who is now 91.


Gamper’s family at the Gamper Trophy game in Barcelona last August. His grandson Xavier is stood to the right of Laporta, centre (Photo: FC Barcelona)

It is fitting that the young ambitious Hans Maximilian Kamper, who became the committed Catalan Joan Gamper, be remembered as the key figure in Barcelona’s establishment. And it all dates back to that advert placed in Les Deportes after he and his friends could find no other team to play for in the city.

“Without Gamper, there would still have been football played in Barcelona,” Bobe says. “But without Gamper, we would not have the FC Barcelona we have today.”

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(Photos: Gamper family/Barcelona/Getty Images/Design: Eamonn Dalton)



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