The Best Non-Competitive Team in Football: The History and Politics of the Catalonia National Team

you hear about Catalonia all the time

typically in reference to politics but

in the footballing sphere it's most

commonly associated with FC Barcelona

but unbeknownst to many Catalonia has a

national football team that has played

over 200 matches against clubs and

countries since its inception in 1904

boasting the likes of Carlos puyol cha V

and Johan Cruyff hey how's it going I'm

Adrian and welcome to rabona TV where

today we'll be going through the history

of the Catalonian national team if you'd

like what you see and hear then consider

hitting that subscribe button at any

time but only if you dig it ok no

pressure guys

alright let's get into it now I'm sure

you're quite familiar with the idea of

Catalonia nationalism and the thirst for

independence in Spain as the people of

Catalonia don't necessarily identify a

Spanish citizens culturally again I

gotta say this every time but I'm not a

history or geography Channel but here's

a very very brief and in complete

history of Catalonia both politically

and geographically Catalonia sits on the

northeastern coast of modern day Spain

sharing a border with France and Andorra

but way back when Europe was made up of

kingdoms

it's a snugly in between the kingdom of

France in the kingdom of Valencia

hundreds of years later Catalonia along

with the other former kingdoms within

present-day Spain was merged with the

crown of Castile and became a province

with a slightly different language and a

different culture to that of the rest of

Spain most cations identify first as

Catalonian citizen and secondly as a

Spanish citizen if at all fast-forward

to the Spanish Civil War which saw the

nation in torn apart

I saw Catalonia as the home base for the

Republican / nationalists who ultimately

lost the Spanish Civil War and were

stripped of their political autonomy and

right to use their language publicly

after the Franco era and de Spain moved

towards democracy the language laws on

Catalan were lifted and the region got

some of their political autonomy back

now as far as national identity goes

nothing changed as far as Catalans

feeling as though they're independent

people from the rest of Spain there has

been referendums for separation most

notably in 2017 that voted in favour of

Independence but was deemed

unconstitutional by the Spanish

government for a variety of reasons and

declared illegal you may have seen

players and managers

the yellow ribbon in support of Catalan

independence and you may have heard

Gerard piqué and Pep Guardiola speak of

their support for an independent

Catalonia but the politicians that have

pushed for an independent Catalonia in

2017 are now either in jail or in exile

so that's an extremely brief and very

general idea of what the situation is

and has been a Catalonia now let's look

at the history of their national

football team which has seen some of

Spain's best players represent it and

has had some incredible triumphs against

the likes of Argentina Brazil despite

not being recognized as a national team

by UEFA and FIFA so they just take part

in friendlies the Catalan Football

Federation was formed in 1900 the

Catalan national football team only

really came together in 1904 with their

first matches taking place in 1905

mostly against the big club teams of

that time you know the familiar names

such as espanol Real Madrid FC Barcelona

etc however seven years after their

debut they played against their northern

neighbours France in Paris but it didn't

go so well for them as they were on the

wrong end of a seven nil

thumping but later that year they had a

rematch in Catalunya and the hosts won 1

nil their first victory over a national

football side from 1915 to 1926 Spanish

football boasted a tournament known as

the Copa put in Sep - derice a

tournament which saw the various regions

of spain the regional teams competing to

be crowned as the champions of spain

competing against the likes of the

castile eleven Astoria's eleven i

believe a basque team was involved as

well the Catalonian team was always a

strong contender winning the trophy five

times the most titles of any of the

other competitors and so the final

edition of the Copa Prince F - Therese

was a special edition which the two most

successful teams played in a be-all and

end-all two-legged affair Catalonia 11

versus Astoria's 11 was the fixture and

the Catalans

took the trophy with a 6-3 aggregate

score now two years prior to this in

1924 the Catalan side played against

Spain but with many mainstays in the

catalan side obliged to play for Spain

there was much competition as they

seven nil players like Yosemite ed and

ricardo zamora played for Spain

instead of Catalonia the former scoring

a brace in this one thus taking some of

the competition out of the match later

in 1934 the Catalan eleven played a two

match series against Brazil winning 2-1

and then drawing the South Americans to

two both matches being played in June of

that year as they were actually two pre

World Cup warm-ups for Brazil ahead of

the 1934 edition in Italy Brazil didn't

fare too well in that competition by the

way losing to Spain 3-1 in the round of

16 which was the first round of matches

in that World Cup as they didn't have a

group stage in that edition they

scrapped it now during the Franco era

the Catalan 11 wasn't allowed to use the

Catalan flag in any of their branding or

on their kits but they were still

allowed to play and they even played

matches against Spain during this time

those must have been hot-blooded however

at this time national teams didn't have

many restrictions as far as who could

represent a country that's why you have

players like Alfredo - Stefano

representing three different national

teams Argentina Colombia and Spain and

of course Catalonia not being a

recognized national team by FIFA there

was absolutely nothing stopping them

from choosing whomever they wanted and

on quite a few occasions they picked

players who weren't from the Catalan

region including de Stefano himself on

January 26th 1955 what's interesting

about that is that the stiffeners team

Real Madrid was considered to be in

direct opposition to Barcelona Catalonia

both politically and footballing wise

yes he played for them against Italian

club Bologna and scored a goal in a 6-2

win now you might be wondering why an

Argentinian who played for Real Madrid

could play for Catalonia and while this

photo probably confuses you even further

I can't really figure out why de Stefano

played for them alongside FC Barcelona

legend lászló Kubala from Hungary sure

the catalan side has had many guest

stars appear in their ranks players born

outside of catalonia but often they

either played for Barcelona or espanol

for a considerable amount of time so

maybe this is my guess de Stefano felt

he owed it to Barcelona after

them for Real Madrid after just one

match that's the best I can come up with

the whole Barcelona and this day for no

situation deserves a video of its own to

be honest I probably make one because

allegedly Real Madrid stole him away

with help from Franco Catalonia played a

friendly with the Soviet Union with

guest players such as Carlos Cazale from

Chile Johan Neeskens from Holland and of

course Johan Cruyff they tied the match

1-1 but so began the beloved

relationship between the Dutch legend

Cruyff and the Catalans namely in

Barcelona of course whom he'd signed

with in 1973 three years prior

Cruyff will come up again by the way

later in the video from the 90s onward

the Catalan national team played many

friendlies in 1998 they beat Nigeria

5-nil the next year they beat Yugoslavia

1 nil and yes I know Yugoslavia didn't

exist as a country then but they threw a

team together they also beat Chile and

Lithuania but their streak was snapped

by Brazil in a pre 2002 world cup

friendly falling 3-1 to the eventual

world champions from here until present

day including all matches Catalonia won

eight lost four and drew seven one of

the most notable wins December 22nd 2009

who has just revealed that Dutch

Barcelona and Catalonia legend thought

so well note for the latter there I

guess but legendary football player

Johan Cruyff was unveiled as catalonia's

manager for a friendly with Argentina in

a six school thriller Catalonia won 4-2

over an Argentine squad that boasted the

likes of Javier Pastore and haldi Maria

Otamendi Demichelis Gago Lavezzi he

guanine and more for Catalonia on the

other hand

not too shabby either you could say with

javi who y'all captive via Victor Valdes

boy and Kirk kitsch Pete gay etc all

representing the yellow and orange of

the Sanada Cruyff would again manage

Catalonia in 2013 this time managing to

get just a draw but from 2008 to 2016

Catalonia would lose just one match

against their close friends

country in fact the Basque people and

the Catalans have met 13 times now and

the Catalans have won just once but it

must be noted the majority of the times

they have met work before the 1950s so

take from that what you will think the

majority of their recent matches have

ended in a drop and one victory for the

Basque Country as well and so that

brings us to present day and after

playing a match almost every single year

from 97 until 2016 catalonia finally

organised a friendly on March 25th 2019

against Venezuela the reasons as to why

they hadn't organized a match in 2017

and 2018 likely due to the political

unrest within Spain and Catalonia given

the failed attempt at declaring

independence in October of 2017 you know

after the failed independence and guys

getting thrown in jail and exiled and

stuff it might have been a little bit

too soon to try to throw a match in 2018

of course with Catalonia in action

there's always going to be headlines and

depending how you look at them they can

be deemed controversial or not for

example some teams blocked their players

from representing Catalonia which at

first could seem political if you want

to politicize it but if you look at the

teams that have blocked their players

from representing Catalonia in March of

2019 it makes sense from a sporting

standpoint now the three clubs that have

caught headlines for blocking their

players from playing are all non

Catalonian teams Rayo Vallecano st

Wescoe and reality are delete a quick

look at the La Liga table and you can

see that the decisions to do so are

likely sporting decisions and less of a

political one as all three teams are

sort of flirting with relegation at the

moment and the last thing that they need

are injuries for their key players or

maybe it is a political statement I

don't know which avi was also barred

from playing in the friendly as his club

Al Saud and Qatar refused to let him

play probably understandably so given

his age 39 in fact that it's well it is

just a friendly in the end and probably

not worth risking one of your players

for a player that you pay a lot of money

regardless the Catalonian team did fine

beating Venezuela two-to-one the same

Venezuelan team that had just recently

defeated the NL Messi in Argentina three

two one

which begs the question and I leave you

with this how good would a Catalan

national team be if it was to take part

in UEFA and FIFA tournaments they keep

threw together this mock-up of potential

starting 11s for Spain and Catalonia if

Catalonia was to eventually separate

from Spain and I gotta say it's pretty

damn close but what do you guys think

let me know in the comments and if you

enjoyed this video then alike is welcome

but dislike is fine too if you really

didn't like it

I get it I'm Adrian this isn't Bona TV

and I'll see you in the next one unless

you didn't subscribe which in that case

I'll probably see you never

take care

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