The Joan Gamper Trophy (, or simply TJG) or Joan Gamper Cup is an annual

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

match held in August, before the start of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

season, where top division clubs from the world compete against them. The competition is hosted by FC Barcelona at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

stadium and is named in honour of

Joan Gamper Hans Max Gamper-Haessig (; 22 November 1877 – 30 July 1930), commonly known as Joan Gamper (), was a Swiss-born football executive and versatile athlete. He founded football clubs in Switzerland and Spain, most notably Barcelona and Zürich. ...

, a founding member, player, and later president of the club. The competition was inaugurated in 1966 by Enric Llaudet, one of Gamper's successors as club president. The trophy itself is an silver cup with five micrometres of gold finishing, on top of a marble plinth base. Initially, four teams participated in the competition, which featured two semi-finals, a third-place play-off, and a final. For the first competition in 1966, Barcelona were joined by Belgium's

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

, France's

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, and Germany's

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

. Barcelona beat the German team 3–1 in the final. Köln subsequently won the competition in 1978 and 1981 and were runners-up in 1979, making them the only team, other than the hosts, to win the competition more than once. The next edition saw the first appearance of another Spanish team,

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

, who along with the hosts, were joined by German side

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, and Argentina's

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

. The latter two clubs are among the most regular guests. Bayern were runners-up in 1984, 1987 and 2006, while Boca became the first of several South American guests to be invited and have since returned in 1977, 1984, 2003, 2008 and 2018. The only non-European team to win the tournament was Brazil's Internacional, in 1982. Subsequent competitions have included teams from Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, Germany's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, and other leagues. Other top-flight Spanish clubs have also occasionally been invited, including

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

and

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, who were winners in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Since 1997, the competition has only featured a one-off game, the tournament being shortened due to an increased fixture list and a shorter close season.Lozano Ferrer, Carles ''et al'' If the match is tied after ninety minutes, no extra time is played and the winner is decided by a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Winners and results

Four teams (1966–1996)

Two teams (1997–present)

Women's Gamper Trophy

Performance by team

Men's

Women's

Awards and records

Awards

;Most Valuable Player *

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

is the first player in the history of Joan Gamper Trophy who has won the man of the match award more than once. He has won it four times: in 2013 against Santos, in 2014 against León, in 2016 against Sampdoria, and in 2018 against

Records

;Top goalscorers Consecutive goalscoring *

is the only player in the history of Joan Gamper Trophy who has scored in six consecutive editions (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018).

References

;General * ;Specific ;Footnotes

External links

{{Friendly association football tournaments in Spain FC Barcelona Catalan football friendly trophies 1966 establishments in Spain