Spotify Camp Nou is 65 years old
Spotify Camp Nou is 65 years this September 24. According to legend, the idea of to build a new ground to replace Les Corts was due to the arrival of Ladislau Kubala in 1951 and the needs for more seats for people to watch him play. That's not strictly true, because plans were already afoot before the Hungarian superstar joined the club, but it certainly hurried plans through. The stadium was the brainchild of President Agustí Montal Galobart, although it would be his successor Francesc Miró-Sans who oversaw much of the project, which finally opened on 24 September 1957 for a friendly against a Warsaw XI. Barça won 4-2 and Eulogio Martínez got the honour of being the first player to score at the ground.
It's initial capacity was 99,053 but in 1975 the replacement of wooden benches with plastic seats reduced the number to 94,400. Later, expansions for the 1982 World Cup saw it extended to an immense 120,000.
In 1994, seats were installed in some of the standing areas and the famous trench around the pitch was removed, meaning the capacity dropped back down to 107,000. And from 1998, the stadium became all-seater and could thus 'only' hold 99,354 people.
Over 4,200 goals
What is now known as the Spotify Camp Nou has hosted 1,656 official FC Barcelona fixtures, producing 1,234 wins, 264 draws and just 158 defeats.
Barça have scored 4,288 competitive goals in these games and leaked just 1,316.
75 years have passed since that historic match played on the day of Barcelona's local holiday, and featuring the following line-up: Ramallets, Olivella (Gràcia), Brugué, Segarra, Vergés (Flotats), Gensana (Bosch), Basora (Hermes González), Villaverde (Sampedro), Kubala (Ribelles), Eulogio Martínez (Evaristo) and Tejada.
The most recent line-up at Spotify Camp Nou was the one against Elche on September 17: Ter Stegen, Kounde, Araujo, Eric Garcia (Bellerín), Balde, Frenkie de Jong, Kessie (Gavi), Pedri, Dembélé (Raphinha), Lewandowski (Ferran Torres) and Memphis (Ansu Fati).
