Barcelona Club Historian

[ingoldale]

Hi all,

I contribute to the Grimsby Town programme and as part of our 140th year anniversary celebrations we are running a series of articles in the match day programme about historic figures at the club. One of those, who I am researching, we believed played for Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

I have searched high and low on their website and have been unable to find anything on there where you can contact them regarding the history of the club. Anyone got any details of who you could contact at FCB in a situation like this?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Tom

[Aitch]

Would that be Elemer Berkessy? Grimsby manager in 1954, Barcelona player in 1934-36?

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Not to put you in a negative mood but I think there's a slim chance you would get someone at Barca HQ to respond. That's my guess anyway.
The very few times I've tried to contact Milan, might as well try to get in touch with someone at the board of directors for Fly Emirates.

No, much better experience was had through one of the large official local supporter clubs or even individuals. If you think about it, whatever book is out there about Barcelona and its history, the author is not "Barcelona" on the cover. It's an individual. Sometimes hired by the club, more often someone truly dedicated, a driving spirit, someone who just had to let the specific interest pour out and put it in writing. Like yourself I imagine.

I've had some luck getting in touch with a couple of people who have written books about AC Milan or who dedicate half their life writing lengthy articles about them from past to present. It took a bit of time to narrow it down, who was worth to contact or even try to contact. But the payoff was great. In your case, if you're short on time, take a quick sweep through Amazon and what book there are or visit a fan shop. Check out who's written them, which ones seem most thorough and not only some 125 page rubbish thrown out to make a quick buck, then try to get in touch with the author through Twitter or Facebook or even own homepage if you're lucky.

That's my five lira worth.

[ingoldale]

Thanks Pietro. Good idea.

Aitch - it is. With him allegedly being there in the civil war years it be even more difficult but it does provide an interesting historical backdrop.

[Satchmo Distel]

This is his full record:

http://www.worldfootball.net/player_...emer-berkessy/

With Barcelona, 28 games, 3 goals

http://www.worldfootball.net/player_...er-berkessy/2/

He was transferred to Le Havre in July 1936 so I infer he was no longer at Barcelona during the Civil War

http://www.footballdatabase.eu/en/cl...avre/1936-1937

He probably went to Barcelona because they had a Hunagrian coach - Ferenc Plattkó

[ingoldale]

Thanks Satchmo

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Another quick way, ingoldale, perhaps not the best to reference but for collecting rough material is search in native tongue then use the translate function in Google (right click and there's "translate page to" in the pop-up menu).
Don't laugh at the back. The translation service might bring a few laughs but it works well to get the overall gist.

Like if you Google "Elemer Berkessy tocó en Barcelona", this link will come up Historia del FCBArcelona where he is mentioned.
I don't speak Spanish so used Google translate to get "Elemer Berkessy played in Barcelona" into Spanish.

All tricks are allowed when being a detective on the Internet.

[ingoldale]

Good idea. I was going to search in Spanish - as I can speak it - later was just seeing if there were any direct avenues I could go down first to make it less time consuming really.

[ursus arctos]

As a former member of the club, I would be the first to admit that FCB don’t do a particularly good job of curating their history.

There is, as far as I am aware, no official club historian, and the club archives are nowhere near as comprehensive or accessible as they should be. Even the club museum is now generally off limits to those who don’t book a full “Camp Nou Experience” stadium tour.

In any event the director of the museum is Jordi Penas, though I’m afraid I do not have an email address. Your best bet would likely be to go through the press office.

This book is currently the single most encyclopedic collection of information on the club’s players. Perhaps someone from the club could copy the relevant entry for you.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

ingoldale, top link here El poder político y social en la historia del Fútbol Club Barcelona and the 466 page downloadable pdf he's mentioned twice.





Don't ask me what it says. My Spanish is rustier than the nails in an 18th century resurrectionists coffin.

[Diable Rouge]

ingoldale, top link here El poder político y social en la historia del Fútbol Club Barcelona and the 466 page downloadable pdf he's mentioned twice.





Don't ask me what it says. My Spanish is rustier than the nails in an 18th century resurrectionists coffin.

I think it's saying that Elémer was one of the few foreign players that Barça could afford to buy during that era, and that because of scrimping, he had to be paid less than the rest of the squad.

[ursus arctos]

Also worth noting that he was known as both Emilio Berkessy or Emil Berkessy (at least).

And of course in Hungarian his name is Berkessy Elemér.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Castellano vs Catalan?

[ursus arctos]

Also Italian and French. He got around.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Hi all,

I contribute to the Grimsby Town programme and as part of our 140th year anniversary celebrations we are running a series of articles in the match day programme about historic figures at the club. One of those, who I am researching, we believed played for Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

I have searched high and low on their website and have been unable to find anything on there where you can contact them regarding the history of the club. Anyone got any details of who you could contact at FCB in a situation like this?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Tom

I do hope you’ll write a few lines on the Barça manager when Berkessy was a Blaugrana (his 2nd season at any rate), the Irishman Patrick O’Connell, “the only man ever to manage both Ashington and Barcelona.”

The Irishman who saved FC Barca