Foundation and early years (1925–1969) Barcelona Sporting Club's 1st squad of 15 June 1925. The coach was Eutimio Pérez.
Barcelona Sporting Club was founded on 1 May 1925 by Eutimio Pérez, a Spanish immigrant who decided to name the club after his home city of
Barcelona,
Spain. The team was named after Pérez's return to Ecuador, and BSC's Barça-like crest was adopted later on. The team competed in the provincial amateur tournament organized by Asociación de Fútbol del Guayas (AFG), which included clubs from around the
Guayas Province in Ecuador. In the 1940s, Barcelona's popularity grew partly by its notoriety in playing matches against important Colombian teams, such as
Deportivo Cali and
Millionarios, two of the best teams from
Colombia's
golden era of football. Barcelona defeated Millionarios twice in Guayaquil, by scores of 3–2 and 1–0. . Both clubs were born in the same Guayaquil neighborhood, Astillero de Guayaquil. In 1950, Barcelona Sporting Club won its first AFG amateur title; the following year, the Association turned professional, and between 1951 and 1967, Barcelona racked up five professional regional titles and finished as runners-up six times, tying crosstown rival
Emelec for the most titles. In 1957, as one of the top two finishers in the Guayas regional tournament, Barcelona was invited to participate in the newly organized
Serie A de Ecuador, which would crown a national championship from among the top two teams from both the AFG and the Interandino tournament disputed by teams from
Quito and
Ambato. Barcelona of Guayaquil finished second in their first participation. Barcelona won its first national title in 1960, and became the first Ecuadorian team to compete in the
Copa Libertadores. •
First match: 15 June 1925 vs
Ayacucho (1–0) •
First international match: 19 March 1931 vs
Deportivo Cali (4–4)
Success, then fall from grace (1970s) By the 1970s, Barcelona had established themselves as one of Ecuador's more popular teams after winning a number of provincial and national championships. Despite their national success, their performance in the Copa Libertadores had been lackluster, having exited the tournament early in competition. That changed in
1971, when they reached the semi-finals of the tournament with a star-studded squad that featured players such as Brazilian international
Jose Paes, Peruvian World Cup player
Pedro Pablo León, and Ecuadorian legend
Alberto Spencer. Although they failed to reach the finals, at that time
Estudiantes de La Plata was undefeated 4 years in row in home matches in
Copa Libertadores, they managed to defeat three-time tournament winner Estudiantes de La Plata 1–0 in
La Plata, later it would be recognized as
La Hazaña de la Plata. In 1972, they reached the semi-finals again, establishing themselves in the international stage. The first two years of the decade were in stark contrast to the remainder; after the 1972 season, the club entered a dry spell that would last nine years. Barcelona did not win a national title, nor did it qualify for the Copa Libertadores, until the 1980s.
Resurgence (1980s) In the 1980s, Barcelona shed the shackles of the prior decade and resurged on the international and domestic fronts. In 1980, the team won their first national title since 1971, going on to win four more before the end of the decade, making the 1980s the team's most successful period in terms of national titles; Barcelona became the first Ecuadorian squad to win 10 national championships. During this period, Barcelona competed in six editions of the Copa Libertadores, reaching the semi-finals twice in
1986 and
1987. In 1988, the club hosted a historic meeting against
FC Barcelona from Spain, homonym to the Ecuadorian club, during the
Guayaquil City Cup friendly; the Ecuadorian Barcelona emerged victoriously 2–1. In 1987, Barcelona inaugurated a new home ground, the
Estadio Monumental. With an opening capacity of almost 90,000 spectators, the
Monumental is still the largest stadium in Ecuador, and was the second-largest in South America, after the
Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. The capacity has been reduced to just under 60,000 due to safety concerns like most South American stadiums.
The glory years (1990s) In 1990, under a new president, the club acquired key international players: former Argentine international and World Cup champion in
1986 Marcelo Trobbiani,
Argentine international
Alberto Acosta, and
Uruguayan
Marcelo Saralegui. In
1990 Copa Libertadores edition, a dramatic semi-final home and away series, Barcelona beat
River Plate of Argentina in a penalty shoot-out, to finally reach the long-awaited final. Unfortunately they would come short, losing against
Olimpia of (Paraguay) 2–0 in the away game, and tying 1–1 in the home game. Many considered the referee had affected the outcome in favor of the Paraguayan team. In
1992, they put together another great team, beating the previous champions
Colo-Colo (Chile) and reaching the Libertadores Cup semi-finals once again, but losing against the powerful Brazilian team of
São Paulo, who at the time was coached by
Tele Santana. Among their stars, São Paulo had players such as
Zetti,
Cafu,
Raí,
Müller and
Palhinha. This decade also proved to show a negative side in the team's history. On 26 December 1993, three days after Barcelona had achieved the second place in the Ecuadorian league and earning a spot in the next Libertadores cup, Ecuadorian striker
Carlos Muñoz died in a car accident at the age of 26. After winning the Ecuadorian league title in 1997 (their last until 2012) with the help of such players as former
Bolivian international Marco "El Diablo" Etcheverry, former
Colombian international Anthony "El Pipa" De Avila and former
Ecuadorian international Agustin "Tin" Delgado, they would go on to play the
1998 Libertadores Cup with mostly old players that seemed to be on their way out. But against all odds, they would reach their second Libertadores Cup final, losing both championship games against
Brazilian team
Vasco Da Gama, 2–0 in the away game and 2–1 in the home game. 1998 was their last appearance in the Copa Libertadores final as of 2022, ultimately meaning that their intention of capturing the Copa Libertadores that they wanted since the turn of the decade turned out to be a missed opportunity and was disappointing to many fans as they expected to win at least one continental title. The glory of being the first Ecuadorian team instead went to bitter rivals
L.D.U. Quito who won the
2008 Copa Libertadores and leaving Barcelona further stings of what could have been.
Title drought (1998–2012) Barcelona did not win a national title for 15 years since 1997, and participated in only two editions of the Copa Libertadores in the 2000s (decade). Despite the lack of titles in recent years, the club remains among the most successful teams in the league, having managed three Serie A runners-up finishes in the decade. Barcelona continues to be among the top contributors to the
Ecuador national team, and remains one of the most popular teams in Ecuador. The
derby with crosstown team
Emelec, remains the most popular football rivalry in Ecuador. During November 2007,
Eduardo Maruri was elected President of Barcelona for the 2007–11 period. Maruri and Noboa (Barcelona's Vice President) introduced the slogan
La Renovación (The Renovation), thereby promising to bring in key international players as well as the best Ecuadorian players and to clean up the mess that had prevented Barcelona from winning the national title. However, the 2009 season was Barcelona's worst season in its history in the
Serie A. Such teams as
Deportivo Quito,
ESPOLI,
Deportivo Cuenca and
LDU Portoviejo came out and spoke about their concern: if Barcelona were relegated, it would enormously impact those teams' economic situations, since when they would play at home against Barcelona it would almost guarantee a sell-out. (This was because Barcelona had the most fans of any team in Ecuador.) On 3 October 2009, more than 70,000 fans showed up at the
Estadio Monumental Banco del Pichincha to support
El Idolo del Ecuador so that it would not be relegated to the
Serie B. In an intense match, Barcelona defeated
LDU Portoviejo 2–0 with goals from
José Luis Perlaza (46th minute) and
Juan Samudio (90th minute). This allowed Barcelona to remain the only Ecuadorian team that has never played a game in
Serie B. On 5 November 2009, Barcelona's President,
Eduardo Maruri, announced the hiring of a multimedia communications group from Spain,
MediaPro, to help them as a consultant and guide them through the new decade in the aspects of advertisement, finance, and sport. This was done with the hope of bringing Barcelona back to international prominence and giving the fans what they most desired, the elusive 14th domestic title. However, Eduardo Maruri resigned the presidency of Barcelona during a surprise press conference on 22 December 2010, stating that he was doing so because of "family issues". Maruri was resigning one year before the scheduled completion of his term. After Maruri resigned, Juan Carlos Estrada was designated as the new President of Barcelona. Estrada also resigned the next day and Alfonso Harb Viteri assumed the presidency. Harb stated that he was going to step down as President and announced that Barcelona's presidential elections would be held on 11 June of the following year.
Noboa Era (2011–2015) The businessman Antonio Noboa with his slogan
Primero Barcelona, defeated his opponent Jose Herrera and was sworn as the new president of Barcelona SC on 11 June 2011. During the Noboa era, Barcelona managed to win the
2012 Serie A, ending a 14-year title drought.
Cevallos Era (2015–) Former goalkeeper
José Francisco Cevallos assume the presidency of Barcelona on 13 December 2015 against
Universidad Católica in Barcelona's home stadium, "El Monumental". His term ended in 2020, but was renewed. In his tenure, Barcelona won the
2016 Ecuadorian Serie A, qualifying them for the
2017 Copa Libertadores, which they reached the semi-finals for the first time since 1998. This run was a great one, qualifying 2nd in their group after River Plate and alongside
Independiente Medellín, and
Melgar. In the knockouts, they beat Brazilian Sides
Palmeiras in the round of 16 and
Botafogo in the Quarterfinals, before losing to eventual champion
Grêmio in the Semifinals. His term ended with a gleeful
2020 Ecuadorian Serie A Championship, and then was re-elected Club President. The next year, Barcelona reached the semifinals of the
2021 Copa Libertadores. This run saw Barcelona top a very tough group with 7 time winners
Boca Juniors, the previous year's runner-up
Santos, and one of the best Bolivian clubs in
The Strongest. In the knockouts, they beat
Vélez Sarsfield in the round of 16 and
Fluminense in the quarter-finals before falling to finalists
Flamengo in the semi-finals. In the
2022 Ecuadorian Serie A, despite winning the first phase, they fell short of the Championship to first time winners
Aucas. ==Colours and badge==