Barcelona S.C.

Barcelona Sporting Club (Spanish: [baɾseˈlona]), internationally known as Barcelona de Guayaquil, is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. They currently play in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of football in the country, and hold the distinction of being the only club in the Ecuadorian top flight to not have played in the Serie B.

Barcelona Sporting Club is one of the most popular football teams in Ecuador, having won the Serie A title a record 16 times, most recently in 2020. They have also won six regional titles (five in the professional era), and were the first Ecuadorian club to make it to the Copa Libertadores finals, making it twice, but lost on both occasions.

Barcelona Sporting Club was founded on 1 May 1925, by Eutimio Pérez, a Spanish immigrant who named the club after his home city of Barcelona. Since then, Barcelona Sporting Club has become the most popular club in the country. The club holds a long-standing rivalry with Emelec, where matches between the two teams are considered the most important derby in Ecuador, commonly referred to as "El Clásico del Astillero". The club plays their home matches in Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha, the largest stadium in the country.

In addition to football, the club has teams in professional basketball, bowling, boxing, swimming, volleyball, baseball, athletics, and tennis. In 2008, its basketball team was the champion in the Ecuadorian National Basketball League.

Barcelona Sporting Club's 1st squad of 15 June 1925. The coach was Eutimio Pérez.

Barcelona Sporting Club was founded on 1 May 1925 by Eutimio Pérez, a Spanish immigrant who decided to name the club after his home city of Barcelona, Spain. The team was named after Pérez's return to Ecuador, and BSC's Barça-like crest was adopted later on. The team competed in the provincial amateur tournament organized by Asociación de Fútbol del Guayas (AFG), which included clubs from around the Guayas Province in Ecuador. In the 1940s, Barcelona's popularity grew partly by its notoriety in playing matches against important Colombian teams, such as Deportivo Cali and Millionarios, two of the best teams from Colombia's golden era of football. Barcelona defeated Millionarios twice in Guayaquil, by scores of 3–2 and 1–0.

Barcelona was formed in the same place where the club which would become its most intense sporting rival was founded, Club Sport Emelec. Both clubs were born in the same Guayaquil neighborhood, Astillero de Guayaquil.

In 1950, Barcelona Sporting Club won its first AFG amateur title; the following year, the Association turned professional, and between 1951 and 1967, Barcelona racked up five professional regional titles and finished as runners-up six times, tying crosstown rival Emelec for the most titles. In 1957, as one of the top two finishers in the Guayas regional tournament, Barcelona was invited to participate in the newly organized Serie A de Ecuador, which would crown a national championship from among the top two teams from both the AFG and the Interandino tournament disputed by teams from Quito and Ambato. Barcelona of Guayaquil finished second in their first participation. Barcelona won its first national title in 1960, and became the first Ecuadorian team to compete in the Copa Libertadores.