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Paul Rouse: Pride in place as Barca and Yamal inflict a thousand cuts on Bayern

Sporting clubs that take the name of a city and thrive nationally and internationally have come to be a defining feature of not just culture and identity within a place.

Lamine Yamal controls the ball during the UEFA Champions League win over FC Bayern Munich. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP) (Photo by JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

Thu, 24 Oct, 2024 - 21:08

Paul Rouse

Paul Rouse is an historian, author, broadcaster… and former Offaly football boss. He specialises in sport and Irish culture.

It’s five minutes after Barcelona have beaten Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League and nobody is leaving. Thousands of fans of all ages have pushed down to the perimeter fence on the north end of Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium.

They are singing and dancing and generally rejoicing in putting Bayern to the sword.

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