FC Barcelona founding advert: the 63-word notice that misspelled its own author (1899)
The FC Barcelona founding advert ran on 22 October 1899, in issue 34 of the Barcelona weekly Los Deportes, tucked into the miscellaneous column at the back. The 63-word notice was placed by the Swiss Hans Gamper (Joan in Catalonia) alongside his compatriot Walter Wild, and it asked anyone keen on the sport to call round and help get some matches going. It was not the birth of the club. That came 38 days later. The small ad lit the fuse.
Three things give the moment its shape: the wording of the notice, the misprints it carried, and the meeting five weeks on that actually created the club.
Key Facts
- The advert appeared on 22 October 1899, a Sunday, in issue 34 of the weekly Los Deportes.
- It was a 63-word call to action in the magazine’s miscellaneous section.
- It was placed on behalf of Hans Gamper and his fellow Swiss Walter Wild.
- The printed text misspelled Gamper as Kans Kamper and rendered the sport as foot-vall.
- Callers were asked to come to the offices on Tuesday or Friday evenings, between nine and eleven.
- The club was formally constituted 38 days later, on Wednesday 29 November 1899, at the Sole gymnasium.
- Twelve men attended the founding meeting; Walter Wild became the club’s first president.
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What the FC Barcelona founding advert actually said
The notice ran under the heading of the miscellaneous section, the kind of column that carried lost dogs and rooms to let. It introduced a colleague of the paper, described as a onetime Swiss champion then part of the foot-vall section of the Sociedad de Deportes, who wanted to “organise some games” in the city. Readers with a liking for the sport were asked to get in touch, and to call at the offices on Tuesday and Friday nights, between nine and eleven. Sixty-three words, no fixture, no ground, no team. Just an open invitation to turn up.
The colleague was Hans Gamper, a young sports enthusiast who reached Barcelona in 1898 and would be known locally as Joan. The advert went out under Gamper’s name together with Walter Wild. The magazine itself, Los Deportes, came out every week through a city gymnasium, which is how a request to play football ended up in a general sports weekly rather than a newspaper.
Kans Kamper and foot-vall: the two misprints
The oddity that keeps this notice alive is that it fumbled the two things it most needed to get right. There were two glaring mistakes: the name of the man behind it, printed as Kamper rather than Gamper, and the sport itself, set as foot-vall. The printed byline read Kans Kamper, a double miss on Hans Gamper. The game was written foot-vall at a time before the Spanish futbol had settled into print. The errors read plainly enough: whoever set the type did not have much idea what football was.
One of the largest clubs on earth traces its paper trail to a small ad that could spell neither its founder nor its game. The reach of the modern institution and the smallness of its first printed trace sit oddly together, and the misprints are what fix the moment in place.
Why 22 October is the advert, not the birthday
The 22 October date belongs to the advert, not the club. FC Barcelona was formally founded 38 days later, on 29 November 1899, when Gamper, Wild and ten other men sat down at the Sole gym and constituted the club. The advert was the recruitment call; the founding meeting was the club. Anniversary pieces that collapse the two into one date lose the more interesting truth, that the club had to be advertised into existence before it could be founded.
The Sole gymnasium was no random room. It stood at 5 Montjuic del Carme, a short walk from Las Ramblas, run by Francesc Sole and doubling as the base of the Catalan Gymnastics Federation. The same premises produced Los Deportes, which ties the advert and the founding to a single address.
| Date (1899) | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sun 22 October | 63-word advert appears in issue 34 of Los Deportes | Barca Foundation; Ben Hayward |
| Wed 29 November | Club formally founded at the Sole gymnasium by twelve men | Barca Foundation; FC Barcelona |
| 13 December | Walter Wild’s term as first president begins | FC Barcelona |
Walter Wild, the co-signer who became first president
Walter Wild co-signed the advert alongside Gamper, and he was one of the twelve people at the founding meeting on 29 November 1899. His colleagues unanimously named him president, and he became the first ever president of FC Barcelona. His term ran from 13 December 1899, and he was re-elected three times up to 27 December 1900 before being forced to resign in April 1901. He also turned out in ten matches, including the team’s very first.
READ MORE: Hans Gamper and the founders who built clubs from nothing →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the FC Barcelona Founding Advert
When did the FC Barcelona founding advert appear?
The advert appeared on 22 October 1899, a Sunday, in issue 34 of the Barcelona sports weekly Los Deportes. It sat in the miscellaneous section at the back of the magazine, a 63-word call to action. It ran roughly five weeks before the club was actually founded.
Did the advert on 22 October 1899 found FC Barcelona?
No. The 22 October 1899 advert was a recruitment call, not the founding of the club. The club was formally established 38 days on, on 29 November 1899, at a meeting in the Sole gym. The advert asked players to come forward; the meeting constituted the club.
How long was the FC Barcelona founding advert?
It was 63 words long. The notice named a onetime Swiss champion who wanted to get some matches going in the city and asked interested readers to make contact. It carried no fixture, no ground and no team, only an invitation to call at the offices. Its brevity is part of why the club later billed it as a tiny ad.
What did the advert of 22 October 1899 misspell?
It misspelled both its author and its subject. The author was printed as Kans Kamper, a double error on Hans Gamper. The sport was written foot-vall, spelling from a time before the Spanish futbol settled into print. The errors read as a sign the printer barely knew what football was.
Who placed the FC Barcelona founding advert in Los Deportes?
It was placed on behalf of two Swiss men, Hans Gamper and Walter Wild. Gamper, known locally as Joan, had reached Barcelona in 1898. Wild co-signed the notice and went on to become the club’s first president. The pair used the advert to gather enough players to form a side.
What was Los Deportes, the magazine that carried the advert?
Los Deportes was a Barcelona sports magazine published every week. It was produced through a city gymnasium, which is how a football recruitment notice came to sit in a general sports weekly. The advert appeared in its 34th issue. The magazine, not a newspaper, is therefore the first printed record of the club’s origins.
Where and when was FC Barcelona actually founded?
FC Barcelona was founded on 29 November 1899 at the Sole gymnasium in Barcelona. The gym stood on Montjuic del Carme, a short walk from Las Ramblas, run by Francesc Sole and also home to the Catalan Gymnastics Federation. Twelve men attended. It was the same building that produced Los Deportes.
How many people founded FC Barcelona on 29 November 1899?
Twelve men founded the club: Gamper and Wild together with ten others. The ten were five Catalans, Lluis d’Osso, Bartomeu Terrades, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol and Josep Llobet; Enric Ducay of Aragon; a second Swiss, Otto Kunzle; the English brothers John and William Parsons; and Otto Maier of Germany. The group mixed Catalans, Swiss, English and German members.
Who was FC Barcelona’s first president?
Walter Wild was FC Barcelona’s first president. His colleagues unanimously named him president, and his term ran from 13 December 1899. He was re-elected three times up to 27 December 1900 and was forced to resign in April 1901. He had also co-signed the 22 October advert alongside Gamper.
What did the advert ask readers to do?
The advert asked anyone interested in the sport to get in touch and call at the offices in person. The hours were Tuesday and Friday nights, from nine to eleven, with callers directed to the newsroom of the publication on those evenings. There was no trial arrangement beyond turning up at the stated times.
Why does the 63-word advert still matter to FC Barcelona?
It matters because it is the club’s first printed trace, and the club treats it that way. On the 125th anniversary in 2024, FC Barcelona reissued the notice, billed as history’s smallest ad. The gap between the modern club and its origin in a garbled small ad is the reason the story endures. It is an origin without a first match or a grand ceremony.
Was Gamper’s name really printed wrong in his own advert?
Yes. The printed name read Kans Kamper, mangling both the first name Hans and the surname Gamper. The man who called the meeting that built FC Barcelona was misnamed in the very notice that called it. It is one of the neatest ironies in the club’s paper record.
The FC Barcelona founding advert, in its proper place
Strip away the trophies and the origin is a garbled classified in the back of a weekly, a call for players that could spell neither its author nor its sport, five weeks before twelve men made a club of it. Hold the two dates apart, the advert on 22 October and the founding on 29 November, and the story keeps its shape. You can follow more beginnings like this one through our On This Day archive.
Sources: Barca Foundation, Ben Hayward, Catalan News, FC Barcelona, Wikipedia.
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