Barca

Book excerpt: The story of FC Barcelona, written by the author of the internationally acclaimed Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona and updated with a new preface 'Burns' examination of the club's fates and fortunes always goes well beyond the game itself ... Burns is a brilliant journalist ... Unmissable' Total Football 'Anyone who really wants to know Barcelona should read Burns. A cracker – part sports book, part travelogue' Daily Mirror Barça is més que un club: more than a club. It is a social and political phenomenon, successful on the football field and emblematic of the proud region of Catalonia off it. Founded in 1898, FC Barcelona is today the world's biggest football club. To unravel the background to the Barça phenomenon, Jimmy Burns has travelled with supporters, talked to people intimately linked to the club, unearthed police files and long-forgotten newspaper reports. Barça: A People's Passion is much more than a book about football – it is a story of more than a hundred years of obsessive national pride and has now been brought right up to date.