Barcelona has produced some of the most iconic kits in footballing history, with regular quirky twists on the historic red and blue stripes paired with audacious and eye-catching away kits.
But they haven’t always had sponsors: for the first 107 years of the club’s existence, they refused to sully the sacred Blaugrana colours. During the Spanish Civil War, the club were involved in an anti-fascist campaign against General Franco and decided against such sponsorship as they felt it didn’t fit with the club ethos.
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It wasn’t until 2006 when Barcelona first wore a sponsor – Real Madrid had just started their sixth front-of-shirt sponsorship deal at the same time, for context – as Barça teamed up with Unicef to promote the charity on the front of their shirt. Of course, they refused to receive a single penny from the charity in return for the promotion.
The Unicef years were fruitful for the Blaugrana. Barça won two Champions League titles with the charity on the front of their tops and earned plaudits from plenty who associated the classiness of the club with a worthy cause on the front of their jerseys.
2011: Qatar Foundation
At the start of the 2011/12 season, Barcelona signed their first paid shirt sponsorship with Qatar Foundation. Despite the reported financial issues at the time, the club was slammed for their choice of sponsor as an early sign of sports washing, while club fans felt the new partnership strayed far from the principles the club was built upon.
Still, Qatar Foundation is a non-profit organisation, marking an evolution in their stance on sponsorship rather than anything too radical.
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2013: Qatar Airways
Two years later, Barcelona signed a deal with Qatar Airways, further developing the controversial relationship with the Middle Eastern country. Xavi would go over to coach in the Gulf State before returning to manage Barcelona, of course, while Guardiola spent two years of his playing career at Al-Ahli.
The airline remained on the shirts for four years up until 2017 and is synonymous with the peak of the famous MSN trio.
2017: Rakuten
2017 saw the arrival of Japanese business Rakuten to the Camp Nou. Dubbed ‘the Amazon of Japan’, the partnership saw perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the club’s forefathers’ outlook, as the once historic institution began a steady descent into genuine financial peril.
Barça, however, noted that the agreement with the tech company was based on “shared values”.
2022: Spotify
In 2022 the club suffered its biggest financial issues in living memory, with a complete mismanagement of wage structure and a handful of ludicrous transfer fees leaving the club unable to register players for the upcoming season.
Having acknowledged the opportunity that had arisen, music giants Spotify swooped in to provide some much-needed financial support on the basis that they would take over as lead shirt sponsor as well as naming rights to the historic Camp Nou. Despite signing an initial four-year deal, reports suggest a partnership between the club and Spotify could last a total of 12 years.
2022: Drake
Seemingly every football club that Drake associates himself with proceeds to lose, in a stroke of fate that only Kendrick Lamar could possibly have written. So what could go wrong when Barcelona decided to team up with the Canadian?
To celebrate Drake clocking up 50 billion streams on the Swedish streaming platform, Spotify replaced their own logo with the rapper’s OVO insignia for 2022’s El Clasico, which naturally, Barça lost. There was some confusion for those unfamiliar with Drake’s work over the past decade-and-a-half, meanwhile, as to why there was a Sheffield Wednesday badge in the biggest game in football.
2023: Rosalia
As 2022’s biggest Spanish-speaking artist on Spotify, Catalan-born-and-bred songstress Rosalia was next on the front of her hometown club’s jerseys, with the logo of her Motomami album.
Barcelona actually won this Clasico this time, en route to their title under Xavi. A good luck charm, if we ever saw one.
2023: Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones’ tongue logo is one of the most iconic in pop culture history. To see it on arguably the most famous football shirt in the world made some kind of sense in 2023.
Mick Jagger and the lads were there in attendance at Barcelona’s Olympic stadium to see the shirts in action, only for Jude Bellingham to ruin the occasion with a late winner, announcing himself well and truly on the biggest stage. You can’t always get what you want, it seems.
2024: Karol G
One that the women’s Barça team have worn first, Karol G is a phenomenon in the Spanish-speaking world, as one of the most streamed Latin artists on Spotify. The Colombian’s logo appeared on the Barça shirt for a women’s Clasico in April 2024, a week before the men donned the same tops.
2024: Coldplay
And now the turn of Coldplay. The four-piece’s tenth record, Moon Music, will reportedly adorn the Blaugrana for an upcoming Clasico, as the 2024 Glastonbury headliners become the second English artist after the Stones to appear on Barcelona’s shirts.
