1997–98 FC Barcelona season

FC Barcelona
1997–98 season
President Josep Lluís Núñez
Head coach Louis van Gaal
La Liga 1st
Copa del Rey Winners
Champions League Group stage
Supercopa de España Runners-up
UEFA Super Cup Winners
Top goalscorer League: Rivaldo (19)
All: Rivaldo (28)
Home colours
Away colours
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

FC Barcelona returned to its previous glorious league ways under the guidance of new coach Louis van Gaal. The highly rated coach, hired from Ajax Amsterdam, brought lethal striker Sonny Anderson and the attacking midfielder Rivaldo with him. But surprisedly Barcelona sold Ronaldo to Inter Milan just before season begin and thus handed Sonny Anderson as main striker. He introduced Barcelona to his marvelous 4-3-3 formation, in which Rivaldo was a perfect centre forward, scoring 20 goals in the league. Under van Gaal at helm on his first season, Barcelona won their 15th La Liga title, 2nd European Super Cup title as well as 24th Copa del Rey title (thus winning their domestic double) but Barcelona crashed out of the UEFA Champions League, following a lackluster performance in the First Group Phase. In fact, Barcelona ended up last in the group, and was not even qualifying for the remainder of the UEFA Cup, contributing only single victory, two draws and three defeats and thus preventing Barcelona's first treble glory.

Barcelona had a marvelous second half of the season, in which it kept pace with La Liga championship leaders Real Madrid, then passing the Madrids when they had a couple of slips. In the end, a win in the 36th round was more than enough to clinch Barcelona's first league title for four years.

Squad

Squad at end of season[1]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Portugal GK Vítor Baía
2 Spain DF Albert Ferrer
3 Spain DF Abelardo Fernández
4 Spain MF Josep Guardiola (captain)
5 Portugal DF Fernando Couto
6 Spain MF Óscar García
7 Portugal MF Luís Figo
8 Bulgaria FW Hristo Stoichkov
9 Brazil FW Sonny Anderson
10 Brazil MF Giovanni
11 Brazil MF Rivaldo
12 Spain DF Sergi Barjuán
13 Netherlands GK Ruud Hesp
14 Nigeria MF Emmanuel Amunike
15 France FW Christophe Dugarry
No. Position Player
16 Serbia and Montenegro MF Dragan Ćirić
17 Netherlands DF Winston Bogarde
18 Spain MF Guillermo Amor
19 Spain FW Juan Antonio Pizzi
20 Spain DF Miguel Ángel Nadal
21 Spain MF Luis Enrique
22 Netherlands DF Michael Reiziger
23 Spain MF Iván de la Peña
25 Spain GK Carles Busquets
26 Spain MF Albert Celades
27 Spain MF Roger García
28 Spain DF Carles Puyol
29 Spain MF Xavi Hernández
31 Spain MF Mario Rosas
32 Spain MF Jofre Mateu


Results

See also

References

  1. ↑ "FootballSquads - Barcelona - 1997/98". Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
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