Barça support in center of Washington DC

Barça’s first day in Washington ended with a visit to the Penya Barcelonista, a young but dynamic group that is the meeting point for Barça supporters in the US capital.

The Elephant & Castle Pub is located at number 900, 19th Street, Washington DC. That’s useful for any Barça fan visiting the city to know, because it’s the home of the Penya Barcelonista Washington DC. This is where the club was established in late 2009, which now has more than 175 members.

President Sandro Rosell, joined by vice president Jordi Cardoner, director Josep Ramon Vidal Abarca and director general, Antoni Rossich, led the FC Barcelona delegation that popped by the clubhouse carrying none other than the Champions League trophy.

Making Barça bigger
Rosell said that its supporters clubs are one of the reasons why Barça is ‘More than a Club’. After mentioning his meeting a few hours earlier with the Bill & Melinda Foundation, he spoke to the local supporters club, saying “thank you for helping the Club become even bigger and better known.” Jordi Cardoner also said how pleased he was to see so many young people, because “supporters clubs like these help promote the Barça brand … I hope that if the time comes that our results are not as good as now, that you will continue to work so hard”.

One of the funniest moments came when Sandro Rosell joked that the president of the Penya, Raimon Puigjaner, was a dead-ringer for the Barça coach. “It looks like Guardiola has a brother in this supporters club” he laughed.

The organizers spoke about the social program they are working on in association with the DC Scores charity, which combines soccer with academic support for more than 800 boys and girls at 26 schools, aged between 8 and 15 years. Just like Barça, this supporters clubs is about more than just soccer.