By Ayesha Hadiqa

Football is the biggest global sport. It is especially dominant in South America, Europe and Africa.  The world cup final is watched by an estimated 600 million people and the annual CL final by more than 300 million.  More than 200 countries take part in the world cup qualifying.

The top three favorite football clubs are Barcelona,Real MadridandManchester United.They have got millions of fan throughout the world.Ever wonder how these clubs were formed. Following is a bit of history describing each of these clubs.

Barcelona

Barcelona is a professional football club, based in Barcelona,Catalonia, Spain.  It was founded in 1899 by Joan Gamper. Joan Gamper was a Swiss football pioneer and versatile athlete. He was born in November 1877. In 1898 he went to Barcelona to visit his uncle. He joined the local Swiss Evangelical Church and began playing football there.
On 22 October 1899, he gives an advertisement wishing to form his own football club. Lots of people wish to join the club. Thus on29 NovemberFootballClubBarcelona was form. Barcelona is one of the most supported teams in the world, and has the largest social media following in the world among sports teams.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1902 by students of different academies who used to play football for fun. In those days football was newly introduced in Madrid. First they formed a club known as FootballClubSky in 1897, only by playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. Then in 1900,that FootballClubSky split into two clubs named NewFoot-BalldeMadridand Madrid Football Club. On 6 March 1902,Madrid Football Club was given the official standard by Juan Padros their new Board president.

Manchester United Football Club
Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. This club was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878. It was founded by Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. At that time the team used to play against each other departments and railway companies. In 1880, they played their first recorded match against Bolton Wanderers. Although they did not win the match, but the club continues.  In January 1902, the condition of club turns out to be really worse. It was burden with too many debts that it was hard to continue. Luckily, its owner Harry Stafford found four local businessmen, each willing to invest in order to keep the club up. Thus the investors give the club new life. They also decided to change the club name, soon 24 April 1902Manchester United was officially found.

Published in Young Nation magazine on October 22, 2016