Josep Samitier

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Achievements for FC Barcelona:
-Seasons in the club: 1918-33
-Played matches: 454
-Scored goals: 326
-Trophies:
12 Catalonia Championships (1918/19, 19/20, 20/21, 21/22, 23/24, 24/25, 25/26, 26/27, 27/28, 29/30, 30/31, and 31/32)
5 Spanish Championships (1919/20, 21/22, 24/25, 25/26, and 27/28)
1 Spanish League (1928/29)
[attachment=1:218qffb8]samitier_mov.jpg[/attachment:218qffb8]

Josep is considered as one of the symbols of the Blaugrana. One of the best strikers with immense touch and feeling for scoring. Josep was also know for his acrobatic skills and the fans gave him the nicknames “lobster man” and “magician". The crowd enjoyed watching him and his blissful skills up in the attacking zone where he bamboozled opponents with his speed. The team won a lot of trophies in the time Josep played for FC Barcelona. He is the second all time scorer of the club with 326 goals just after Alacantara.

After finishing his career he trained FC Barcelona between, winning 1944 and 1947. the 44-45 Spanish League and the Eva Duarte Cup in 1945. He was also responsible for the signing of Kubala in 1950.
One of the streets near Camp Nou, on the 16th September 1993, was named after him.

He was really a Barca legend. Only downside of his career are his two seasons at Real Madrid. But then again he did get us Kubala at the time when he was already discussing terms then.

Every proper Barca supporter has heard of Kubala, Cesar Rodriguez, Zamora, Alcantara etc past legends that our ancestors watched. However there is A legend, a Barca legend that has never really been discussed on this forum or indeed by any modern day cule. Until now.

Josep Samitier. The Lobster he was nicknamed by some of the Blaugrana faithful. He made his debut in 1919 at just 17 years old. As a player for Barca he won the first ever La Liga, 5 Copa del Reys and 12 Catalan championships. Then in 1933 after 14 glorious years he fell out with the Barca management team. And he moved to Madrid CF.

He played there for almost two seasons and won a La Liga and a Copa del Rey before leaving at the end of 1934. He was also manager of Atletico Madrid for a short spell in 1936. But then at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Samitier, like so many in Spain did, went into exile in Southern France. He played for Nice for 3 seasons. He then managed them for a while in 1942. And when he returned to Spain.

To manage us ! Barca ! From 1944 to 1947 he was manager and he won our 2nd ever La Liga and a Copa del Rey. He then worked as a scout for FC Barcelona. He did spot a few players like, em, Ladislao Kubala ! Samitier spotted Kubala and signed him up. You could say it was the passing of the baton from one Barca great to the next.

He then unfortunately passed away in 1972 at the age of 70, to young to die for a fit sorta guy. His funeral was massive, cules wouldn't let this legend escape.

But we have. So I think we should all remeber Samitier on this thread. To Josep Samitier !

Well, it's the first time that I saw this name... :sad: but anyway, it's a BarçaMan... so that's what is important... so... To Josep Samitier ! :beer2:

What's the story with the lack of interest in the club's history? So many threads, like this one, are just ignored.

One post? Seriously? I know VivaBarça opened another Samitier thread but that has very few posts too. Terrible!

Well unfortunately one problem may be the absence of resources i.e. the lack of photos and the absence of videos. It's hard to imagine the players since we don't know how we played, and only Gio is old enough on the forum to have been alive in the 1930s...

beef-supreme said:

Well unfortunately one problem may be the absence of resources

Click to expand...

Well, in the book "Barça: a People's Passion" by Jimmy Burns, we have a some (much) information about this legend...

Yep, that's right! Worth reading, for sure.

JCCR_FCB said:

Well, in the book "Barça: a People's Passion" by Jimmy Burns, we have a some (much) information about this legend...

Click to expand...

Sounds good, unfortunately I've never come across Barca literature except when I was in Barcelona proper - I'm going back there this summer and I hope I can find something

beef-supreme said:

Sounds good, unfortunately I've never come across Barca literature except when I was in Barcelona proper - I'm going back there this summer and I hope I can find something

Click to expand...

At the Botiga, you will find a lot of interesting things... specially literature about our club!

Thanks for that, I definitely will be heating to the Botiga and I will be doing me some shoppin'!

beef-supreme said:

Thanks for that, I definitely will be heating to the Botiga and I will be doing me some shoppin'!

Click to expand...

:thumbsup2:

JCCR_FCB said:

Well, in the book "Barça: a People's Passion" by Jimmy Burns, we have a some (much) information about this legend...

Click to expand...

This is great! An interview with his wife. Where else will we know about him?

Also he was a friend of famous tango singer Carlos Gardel who died. You'll find this story in the book too.

Was a brilliant book, well worth a read and this era is covered very well by Jimmy Burns

Just bought it in Barcelona when I was there a month ago. Awesome reading, I didn't expect it would be so exited.
another great book of this kind I've read about history of Spain. It's Giles Tremlett "Ghosts of Spain.