Known for its famous style of play ‘tiki-taka’ which emphasizes possession, quick passing, and movement off the ball, FC Barcelona always have been home for the biggest of stars such as Johan Cruyff, Diego Armando Maradona, Lionel Messi, and many more.  

The Catalan giant as a whole club is one of the biggest both in terms of trophies won and their fanbase all around the world. Like every club, Barcelona also experienced its golden period of time when they were absolutely force to reckon all around the world. This period came between 2008 and 2015 when Barca won 3 Champions League, 5 La Liga, 2 European Treble, one sextuple, and many more.  

Foundation of the Golden Generation 

After winning back-to-back La Liga titles in 2004/05 and 2005/06 along with the 2006 Champions League under Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona went on to lose league titles to arch-rival Real Madrid for two seasons in a row which saw the Dutch manager lose his job.  

Then-president of the club Joan Laporta promoted former Barcelona player Pep Guardiola from Barca-B team to first team coach, which was a pure gamble given Jose Mourinho was seen as the successor for Rijkaard at that time, who was a proven manager.  

La Masia grown Pep then took big steps like demand for the departure of world-class players like Ronaldinho and Deco. Then he promoted La Masia product Sergio Busquets to the first team as a defensive midfielder as well as talented forward Pedro and signed young potential stars like Dani Alves from Sevilla.   

Start of the dream team  

The dream team of Pep Guardiola starts their journey with a loss against newly promoted side Numancia. Fast forward to the end of the season, they completed the European treble winning the League title, UEFA Champions League, and Copa Del Rey titles. They clinched the League title by 9-point margins against Real Madrid, won UCL by defeating Manchester United by 2-0 in the final, and defeated Athletic Club by a 4-1 goal margin to complete the European treble for the first time in club history. Then they went on to win the Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and Super Cup de Espana to become the first club in history to complete a sextuple.  

The peak of a golden generation of Barcelona 

Under Pep Barcelona played probably the most beautiful football the world has ever seen and that was considered the best team in the history of club football by many. After winning a sextuple in the 2008/09 season, Barcelona went on to win three league titles in a row in very dominant fashion against arch-rival Real Madrid.  

Fast forward to the 2011 UEFA Champions League final at Wembley against Manchester United. Both teams came to this game as their respective League champions. These two teams faced each other two years back in the 2009 final as well when Barcelona came victorious 2-0 in Rome.  

United came to this game as EPL champions while Barcelona was already crowned La Liga champions a few weeks back. At Wembley Stadium against Premier League champion Manchester United, Barcelona again defeated the Red Devils to clinch the UCL title 2 times in 3 seasons. They made a mockery of United in the final defeating them by 3-1 scoreline. This performance is regarded by many as the best UCL final performance by any team in the history of this competition.  

2011-12 season  

After being dominant for more than 4 years both domestically and in the whole of Europe, then came a slump of a season when Jose Mourinho beat Barcelona to win the League title with Real Madrid with 100 points. In Europe, the Catalan club was dumped from the competition by Chelsea, who went on to win the competition, in the semi-final stage.

Then came the shock no one expected when Pep decided to part ways with Barcelona after 14 trophies in 4 full seasons.  

Rise after Pep  

After Pep left, his assistant manager Tito Vilanova took charge of Barcelona. This season Barcelona won the league by touching 100 points, losing only 2 games during the whole season. But the season didn’t end well as they were beaten by Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey semi-final and thrashed by Bayern Munich by a 7-0 aggregate scoreline in the Champions League semi-final.  

Luis Enrique’s Barca and rise of the MSN 

After Tito was diagnosed with a serious illness, Tata Martino was appointed as the new Barcelona manager for the new season. The same summer Barcelona announced the signing of Brazilian wonderkid Neymar Jr. From Santos. The 2013/14 season under Martino didn’t go successful as they went trophyless the whole season, losing the league to Atletico Madrid by three points and losing to the same opponent in the UCL quarter-final stage. Besides that, they were beaten by Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey final.  

After going trophyless Tata Martino lost his job and then came former Barcelona player Luis Enrique as Barcelona’s head coach. This season was the beginning of one of the most famous and potentially the best trio the world has ever seen, MSN (Messi, Suarez, and Neymar).  

Summer 2014 saw the incoming of Luis Suarez from Liverpool despite his 4-month ban due to a controversial incident during a World Cup game between Uruguay and Italy. This move later became one of the most important decisions in whole club history as Luis Suarez went on to score 209 goals for the club.  

The 2014/15 season came as another very successful season in club history under Luis Enrique’ very first term as manager of Barcelona. The Catalan giant completed its second continental treble being the very first team in club history to achieve this feat.  

They won the league by 2 points against Real Madrid and defeated Athletic Club by 3-1 in the final of Copa Del Rey. Then came one of the legendary runs to win the Champions League title to complete the European treble. They beat English champions Manchester City in the round of 16, champion of French league PSG in the quarter-final, German Bundesliga winner Bayern Munich in the semi-final, and Serie-A winner Juventus by 3-1 to clinch the title for the fifth time in club history.  

This was the last time Barcelona won the Champions League to date. They had won 4 league titles after 2015 but especially after 2019, things have been very hard for Barcelona. Now every Barcelona fan dreams of replicating this dream run of Barcelona, which could prove to be very difficult. But hope we are on the right path to be the force to reckon we once were.