FC Barcelona are about to kick off the official season with the UEFA Supercup against Sevilla on August 11th, but before they will finish the preseason with a fifth game against Italian side AC Roma. Marking the 50th edition of the Joan Gamper trophy, an unofficial competition organized by the Catalan club every year to commemorate the founder of the club Joan ‘Hans-Max’ Gamper, who was also a player and later president of the club.

The Gamper trophy was first organized at back in 1966, with four teams taking part including Barcelona as the host, featuring in two semifinals, then a third place game and a final, all taking place at the Camp Nou. This system was adopted for 31 consecutive editions, until 1997 when it was changed to a one game match featuring Barcelona and a guest club. It’s also an occasion to present Barcelona’s squad for the new season, including the new signings, who experience what it feels to play for the home team at the Camp Nou and in front of its crowd for the first time. And with the competition being held in August, the Gamper game is an additional preseason test and often the last contest before official competitions start.

AS Roma participate for the first time, being the 67th club to take part in the celebrations. PSV Eindhoven are the team to participate the most as guest (six times), followed by Bayern Munich, Anderlecht, FC Koln and Boca Juniors (five times). And despite the fact that 23 different teams were invited twice, only German club FC Koln won the trophy more than once, with two wins. The host FC Barcelona won in 37 occasions and lost in 12. Worth noting that FC Zurich, the Swiss team also co-founded by Joan Gamper, took part in the competition back in 1979, but finished dead last.

Italians are regular guests in the Gamper trophy, 12 different editions have seen an Italian side participate, as much as Dutch clubs, and only German teams received more invitations (18 times). In fact, Roma are the eighth Italian club to feature after Milan (three times), Inter and Sampdoria (twice), Brescia, Juventus, Parma and Napoli (once). These participations ended only with Juventus (2005) and Sampdoria (2015) taking the trophy home. Barcelona’s biggest wins in a final played against a European opponent came against Internazionale (5-0) and Napoli (5-0).

As for the host, Barcelona won 60 games, drawing 10 (decided on penalty shoot-outs) and lost 10, scoring 200 goals and conceding 80. Barça’s first goal was scored by Fusté, the 100th goal was scored by Gary Lineker, and the 200th is the goal of Sandro Ramirez. In finals specifically, Barcelona kept 11 clean sheets and scored 109 goals: the first was scored once again by Fusté, and the 100th by Cesc Fabregas.

Speaking of goalscorers, Stoichkov, Begiristain and Asensi are Barcelona’s top scorers in the competition with seven goals each. Messi has four goals to his name, and is one goal away from Beguiristain top scorer in finals. Messi opened the score in each of the previous two editions, including an 8th minute goal against Santos in 2013 contributing to the biggest score ever recorded in a Gamper final (8-0), and a 3rd minute goal against Club Leon last year which is the fastest goal in a Gamper Cup final since Krankl’s 2nd minute goal back in 1980. In last year’s edition also, Munir became the youngest player ever to score a brace in a Gamper Cup final in what was his first appearance ever at the Camp Nou, only one goal short from becoming the third player in the history of Gamper Cup finals to score a hattrick, after Marcial in 1974 and Oscar in 1995 (both for Barcelona).

Luis Enrique wants to get a good result and witness a convincing performance after failing to win his last three preseason games, the man who’s Camp Nou debut as Barça’s manager ended in a spectacular 6-0 win, making him only the second manager in Barcelona’s history to win his first Gamper final with at least three goals margin after Tata Martino. No better team for Lucho to face than the first one he managed in top flight, in fact the Gamper trophies of late have been occasions to rekindle old memories especially with ex-Barça players returning with their new teams to the stadium where they proudly once wore and defended the blaugrana jersey. The likes of Rafael Marquez (2014), Maxi Lopez (2012), Ronaldinho (2010), Koeman (1995), Zubizarreta (1994) all came back to the Camp Nou for the Gamper celebration, receiving a warm welcome from the crowd and in some cases a token of appreciation from the club. And the 50th edition’s celebrated player will be Seydou Keita, the winner of the first treble in the history of the club and the only sextuple in the history of European football, the generous player and beautiful person who came with Guardiola and left together with Pep, after four years and 14 official trophies, being a crucial part in the most successful era in the history of the club.