As the year comes to an end, we look back over the last 12 months and select 10 magical moments for Barça fans, across the scope of all the sports the Club is involved in.
1) European wins at basketball and roller hockey
After a wonderful weekend in Paris for the Final Four, Xavi Pascual’s Regal Barça lifted the Club’s second Euroleague title on may 9th after beating CSKA Moscow in the semis and Olympiakos in the final. Three weeks later, on May 30th, Barça Sorli Discau also lifted Europe’s biggest title at the Final Six in Valdagno to chalk up the section’s 19th European Cup
2) La Lliga won with 99 points
On 16th May, Barça were officially crowned 2009-10 La Liga Champions after beating Valladolid at the Nou Camp for three points that took their tally for the season to an astonishing 99 – more than any other team in Europe had ever managed. 3) Barça B promotion
On June 20th, Barça B beat Sant Andreu to clinch promotion to Spain’s second tier .the Segona A division. Twelve years after they were relegated, Luis Enrique’s youngsters had brought the reserve team back up.
4) Sandro Rosell, 39th Club President
On July 1st, Sandro Rosell took over as the Club’s 39th President after a convincing win in elections held on June 13th in which he won more votes than any other President before him had ever recorded.
5) Barça influence at the World Cup
On July 11th, the Spanish team won the South African World Cup. Eight Barça players featured for Vicente del Bosque’s team - Xavi, Iniesta, Valdés, Puyol, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Villa and Piqué – and it was Andres Iniesta who scored the winning goal in the final . What’s more, nine of Spain’s squad were La Masia products -Reina, Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta, Valdés, Puyol, Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Piqué). 6) The Lakers’ Visit
On October 7th, Regal Barça won a famous victory over reigning NBA champions LA Lakers at the Palau Sant Jordi . Despite the presence of Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant in the American team’s ranks, Xavi Pascual’s European Champions put in a great performance to win the game.
7) Barça 5 Madrid 0
The NouCamp thrilled to a historic 5-0 thrashing of the eternal rival on November 29th, as Pep Guardiola’s players handed out a lesson in football to Mourinho’s men. Xavi, Pedro, Villa (2) and Jeffren were the goalscorers on a fantastic and unforgettable night for the Barça fans. 8) 3 finalists in the Balon De Oro
On December 6th, FIFA announced the three finalists for its Balon De Oro Award and all three were home grown Barça players: Messi, Iniesta and Xavi. The winner will be named on January 10th in Zurich.
9) Agreement with Qatar Foundation
On December 10th FC Barcelona announced that it had reached agreement with the Qatar Foundation for it to become the Club’s principal shirt sponsor, alongside UNICEF, for the next five seasons in a deal that will bring the club 165 million Euros. 10) Convincing Derby win
On December 18th, Barça, with a 100% away record, faced Espanyol who had won every game at the Cornella Stadium so far in the 2010-11 season and were at that time lying fourth in La Liga. Everybody expected a close result, but Guardiola’s team scored the biggest ever away win against their city neighbours to win 1-5 and close a memorable 12 months of league success.
The Catalan sports dailies, ‘Sport’, ‘El Mundo Deportivo’ and ‘El 9 Esportiu’ have all mentioned not just Leo Messi but also the way the top three were all Barça players. ‘Sport’ speaks of ‘Gold for Messi. Glory for Barça’, while ‘Mundo Deportivo’ leads with ‘Messi! Leo wins second Ballon d’Or aged 23 anys’ and ‘El 9 Esportiu’ proclaims that ‘Messi brings it back’. 
Despite the important announcement of the ETA ceasefire, Leo Messi and his prize also got plenty of coverage in the national broadsheets. ‘El Periódico de Catalunya’, ‘La Vanguardia’ and ‘Ara’ all included front page stories and extensive coverage of the events in Zurich. 
And naturally there was joy in Messi’s home country. In Argentina, ‘Olé’ filled the front page with the news, under the headline ‘The secret of his golds’. ‘Clarín’ and ‘La Nación’ also had plenty to say about the award. 
Back in Europe, the FIFA party was also a major story. French paper ‘L’Équipe’, for instance, titled its report with the play on words ‘Messi? Mais sí’. 
