From the newspaper advertisement
“Our friend and colleague, Kans Kamper, from the football department (spelled foot-vall instead of football) of Sociedad de Deportes and former Swiss champions, wants to organise some matches in Barcelona, calling on anyone who loves the sport to contact him and come to the office on Tuesday or Friday evenings from 9 to 11”.
This is an advertisement in the Barcelona magazine Los Deportes published on 22 October 1899. It was posted by Hans (not Kans) Kamper, a Swiss who had recently arrived in the city. That advertisement started a process that would see him become arguably the most influential figure in the football history of FC Barcelona.
“Gamper is a symbol of the club, but fans don’t know much about him,” Spanish football historian Angel Iturriaga told The Athletic. “They may know him as one of the founders of Barca, but not many know he was a great striker. He was also the sporting director and president who saved the club from complete disappearance in 1908.”
Legends Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi later shaped Barcelona into a unique football club, deeply rooted in Catalonia and widely loved around the world – but without Gamper's vision and stubbornness, there might never have been FC Barcelona.
This is his story...
Hans Maximilian Kamper was born on 22 November 1877 in Winterthur, near Zurich. Growing up, he played many sports, but football was his passion. After playing for his hometown team FC Winterthur, Kamper moved to FC Excelsior in Zurich and in 1896 co-founded FC Zurich. He also played two games for FC Basel.
“Kamper was physically strong and powerful,” said Josep Bobe, a member of the club’s history committee. “When Basel’s athletics track was inaugurated, he won the 200m race. He also won cycling races when he was young. When he was in Lyon (France) for work, he played rugby. But what he really liked was playing football.”
Coming from a wealthy banking family, Kamper's ambitions were even greater. His career plan was to start an import-export business in the Spanish colony of Fernando Po, until a stay in Barcelona in 1898 with a relative named Emilio Gaissert changed his mind.
Kamper, 21, settled into the bustling city. After finding work as an accountant for the city’s tram company and changing his name to the more Catalan-sounding Gamper, he became involved in the local sports scene, including gymnastics, rowing, fencing and some cycling but very little football. “My grandfather was very upset when he arrived because no one played football,” says his grandson Xavier Gamper. “He founded FC Barcelona because he wanted a place to play football.”
Founding of FC Barcelona
Gamper even imported the first leather balls into the city. With friends, including fellow Swiss Walter Wild, he began playing football in the streets. But when they tried to attend matches organized by Gimnasio Tolosa at the Bonanova Velodrome, they were turned away because they were foreigners, Protestants, and unwelcome.
That led Gamper and Wild to try Gimnasio Sole, where the magazine Los Deportes was published with his advertisement on 22 October. A few weeks later, on 29 November, 10 others came to a meeting to form the new club. They included Lluis d'Osso, Bartomeu Terrades, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet and Enric Ducay from the local area, two English brothers - John and William Parsons, Otto Kunzle from Switzerland and Otto Maier from Germany.
"They were called the 12 apostles of Barca - six Catalans and six foreigners," says historian Iturriaga. "They started organizing matches and forming an organization. Wild became the first president, because according to Spanish law you had to be at least 23 years old. But Gamper was the most important person in organizing the team, both on and off the pitch."
The first match was played on 8 December at the Bonanova Velodrome against a group of British emigrants. Barcelona lost 1-0. Many of the local players were still getting used to a sport that was still very new in Catalonia. Gamper quickly distinguished himself with his talent and won more matches. "Initial match reports said Gamper was the best player," Bobe said. "He had more experience than the others and in one game he scored nine goals."
Also influential were the English Witty brothers, Arthur and Ernest. There is debate over whether the 'blaugrana' (blue and maroon) colours of Barca came from Gamper's old club FC Basel or the Wittys' old school, Merchant Taylors on Merseyside.
Gamper captained the team to its first trophy, the 1901–02 Copa Macaya (which later evolved into the Catalan Championship). Barça also reached the final of the 1902 Copa de la Coronacion (which later became the Copa del Rey), with Gamper scoring in a 3–1 semi-final win over Real Madrid, the first Clasico. Records show that he scored over 100 goals in 48 games, but as time went on his relationship with some of his local teammates deteriorated.
When Barça won their first official Catalan championship in 1905, Gamper was no longer involved. He retired to concentrate on his business. But the allure of football and Barça remained.
Save the club
During the first decade of the 20th century, Espanyol, Hispania AC, Catala FC, FC Internacional and Irish FC were the clubs competing for players and fans in the city. FC Barcelona’s initial success waned and in December 1908 a meeting was convened with just one item on the agenda – dissolution. Before the vote, Gamper – although no longer a socio (club member) – stood up and gave a speech against the move.
“The most important day in the history of Barcelona was December 2, 1908, even more important than the day it was founded,” said his grandson. “He stood up and said, Barça must not and cannot be allowed to die. If no one else can save it, then I will.”
Gamper assumed the presidency and took control of off-field operations. He financed the construction of the club's first official stadium on Carrer de la Industria, using his connections with the former company Credit Lyonnais.
With the team back on track, in 1910 Gamper made Catalan the club's official language - part of a careful cultivation of relationships with the city's new political and social elite, including the leaders of the Lliga Regionalista Catalana party. While alternating between the presidency and Catalan politicians, Gamper took on the role of sporting director.
With future stars such as Paulino Alcantara, Josep Samitier and Ricardo Zamora all joining as teenagers, coaches hired from England and friendlies against top clubs from across Europe, by the early 1920s the club had outgrown Carrer de la Indus. Gamper paid for around half of the 2 million pesetas it cost to build the new Les Corts stadium. By November 1924, when the club celebrated its 25th anniversary, Barça had 12,000 socios. Later, when he served as President for a fifth time, Gamper was credited with being the most important figure in the club's founding.
Cut off the relationship
Six months later, Gamper's official association with the club was severed forever. The cause was a friendly match he organised against local rivals Jupiter, to raise funds for the Orfeo Catala Choral Society on 14 June 1925. When the hired British Navy band began playing the Spanish national anthem, the crowd began to whistle. The musicians switched to God Save the King, and the locals gave them a standing ovation.
“It was during the dictatorship of (General Miguel) Primo de Rivera and the government thought it was a disgrace,” Bobe said. “Some people wanted FC Barcelona to be dissolved forever. The final punishment was a six-month ban from all club activities. Gamper was asked to leave the country.”
Forced into exile back in Switzerland, Gamper occasionally returned in secret to see his wife Emma Pilloud and their two sons Marcel and Joan Ricard. The new Barca board kept their founder at arm’s length to maintain relations with the authorities. By 1929, when Barcelona won La Liga for the first time, he was allowed to return but still had to pay to watch “his” club at the stadium he had half-funded.
Gamper's business interests also suffered. Local politicians were no longer friendly. In 1927, the site of the former Carrer de la Industria stadium (which he still partly owned) was sold for below market value. His stock market investments initially did well, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 devastated his finances and contributed to his suicide, aged just 52, the following July.
In 1957, when the club moved into their new stadium, they debated naming it after the most important president in their history. But with the taboo still surrounding Gamper, everyone simply called it Camp Nou (New Stadium).
In 1966, the Gamper name was given to a pre-season friendly that the club still holds every August. Forty years later, during Joan Laporta's first presidency, the club's training ground was officially named Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.
“Without Gamper, Barcelona would still have football,” Bobe said, “But without Gamper, we wouldn’t have FC Barcelona as we do today.”
