BARCELONA, Spain — Wearing the club’s flag and painting their faces blue and maroon, Barcelona fans Max Durr and his father Nico joined thousands of others in the Catalan capital’s famous Plaza de Catalunya to celebrate their team’s coronation as La Liga champions under the light of flares illuminating the night sky.
Playing at home, the soccer giants defeated arch-rivals Real Madrid 2-0 on Sunday in the much-awaited El Clasico, clinching their second straight Spanish league title.
Recommended stories
list of two itemsend of list
Madrid’s lackluster performance and the tens of thousands of fans packed into the Camp Nou Stadium, known as Barcelona supporters, made the league victory even more appealing.
There was an air of anticipation at the iconic venue as fans believed victory was inevitable. They continued to shout “Campeone, Campeone” (Champion, Champion) throughout the match, far beyond the referee’s full-time whistle.
Barça fans will once again fill the city’s streets on Monday afternoon as the players join in the celebrations with an open bus parade through the streets.
“I came here because I promised my son that if we won La Liga, we would go to the canaletas (fountain) to celebrate,” said businessman Durr, whose 14-year-old son is also a Barça season ticket holder. “What if we could finish the season and win La Liga?”
The Canaletas Fountain, at one end of Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas, where fans traditionally gather to celebrate victories, was closed on Sunday due to construction.
It’s part of Barcelona folklore.
In the 1930s, Barcelona’s main sports newspaper, Las Ramblas, recorded the team’s results on a blackboard here if the team played away. Although the blackboards and newspapers are long gone, the tradition of celebrating victories there remains.
Doeur, 50, praised the team’s consistency throughout the season and admitted that quality helped them win the title.
“Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid seemed to only play in certain games,” he said.
Fans from all over the world flocked to the derby and the chance to see Barça crowned champions.
Vance Sterling saved up a $2,000 fight ticket and flew from Missouri, USA, just for this fight.
“It was worth the trip. It was a great experience. We beat Real Madrid in this stadium and won La Liga, so how can we win?” said Sterling, 33, with azulgrana (blue and maroon) painted on his cheeks.
Will Barça win or Real Madrid lose?
However, for other fans, the joy of winning La Liga was a little more muted.
“It’s obviously great to win the title, but strangely it wasn’t as emotional or exciting as last year, which was Hansi Flick’s first season as coach,” said Adrian Fabregat, one of Barcelona’s season ticket holders.
“We may have been a bit obsessed with the UEFA Champions League. That’s how Hansi described our determination to win.”
Fabregat, 45, a computer worker who has been a fan since 2004, said Real Madrid’s poor performance helped Barça win the title.
“They dropped points against a club they should never have drawn or lost to, and that helped us. We became more confident. It’s always nice when Real Madrid can win the title when they can’t win anything else.”
Flick won his third major title in his two years in charge of Barcelona, including the 2025 Copa del Rey. During the same period, Madrid ended the season without winning a notable silver medal for the second year in a row.
Madrid are limping through a disappointing season in which Xabi Alonso was sacked, and it is expected that Alvaro Arbeloa will also be sacked in a summer shake-up unless things change significantly.
Spanish football expert Graham Hunter believes winning the title will not mean a “good season” for the Catalan club.
“Objectively speaking, Barcelona have gone backwards this season,” he told Al Jazeera.
“They conceded every game in the UEFA Champions League and were eliminated in the quarter-finals by local opponents Atlético Madrid, instead of in the semi-finals like last season. They were also eliminated in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.”
“Regardless of whether their win margin or league championship date was better than last season, they weren’t playing better football, in fact, they often played less good.”
But Hunter said two players shined for Flick.
“Lamine Yamal was outstanding.”
“He has often led the team. He is definitely a genius from a footballing point of view. João Garcia in goal played dazzlingly well,” he added.
Hunter agreed that Real’s poor performance had a lot to do with Barca’s victory.
“There is no denying that Real Madrid were chaotic and often conceded points to minor teams.
It wasn’t a good thing to fire a manager in the middle of a season and watch his replacement’s winning percentage drop even further. “A thoroughbred will always win against a Shetland pony in a two-horse race,” he added.
Alberto Martínez, a soccer journalist for the Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia, said Flick and his players jumped at the opportunity presented by Madrid’s crisis.
“Continuity between the coach and the players was the key to Barcelona’s victory,” he said.
