Joan Gamper Trophy

The Joan Gamper Trophy (Catalan: Trofeu Joan Gamper) or Joan Gamper Cup is an annual friendly football match held in August, before the start of FC Barcelona's La Liga season, where top division clubs from Europe compete against them.[1] The competition is hosted by FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou stadium and is named in honour of Joan Gamper, 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.[2] The trophy itself is an 800-gram (1.8 lb) silver cup with five micrometres of gold finishing, on top of a 10-kilogram (22 lb) marble plinth base.[3]

Joan Gamper Trophy
Trofeu Joan Gamper

The trophy awarded to champions
Founded	1966 (1966)
Region	Catalonia
Number of teams	4 (1966–96) 2 (1997–present)
Current champions	Barcelona (44th title)
Most successful club(s)	Barcelona (44 titles)
Television broadcasters	TV3 Televisió de Catalunya Barça TV
Website	fcbarcelona.com

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, France's Nantes, and Germany's 1. FC Köln. 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, who along with the hosts, were joined by German side Bayern Munich, and Argentina's Boca Juniors. 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, Germany's Bundesliga, and other leagues. Other top-flight Spanish clubs have also occasionally been invited, including Tenerife and Valencia, 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.[1] If the match is tied after ninety minutes, no extra time is played and the winner is decided by a penalty shoot-out.