Nowadays, there is a Penya Barcelonista Collblanc-Sants, which has its headquarters in front of access 15 of the FC Barcelona stadium. It is a penya that has a rather interesting history due to the great metamorphosis it has undergone over the years, which makes it an unprecedented case in the world of supporters’ clubs.
It all began in 1946, two years after the foundation of the Penya Solera, when the Penya de Sants was founded. It was a supporters’ club that brought together dozens of Barça fans from the Sants neighbourhood who liked to enjoy FC Barcelona matches as a group and who went together every weekend to the Les Corts stadium. It is also said that they sometimes organised trips when Barça did play away, even though in the 1940s, during the deep post-war crisis, the economy was not in a position to make too many group trips.
At the same time, in 1956, years after the arrival of the Hungarian legend Ladislao Kubala at FC Barcelona, and in view of the passion he had aroused among the culers, the Penya Kubala was founded in Les Corts, almost next to Hospitalet de Llobregat. It was a supporters’ club dedicated to the star of the moment, and which gained momentum as Barça collected more and more titles. At the same time as the two penyes were operating in parallel, and according to some non-consensual versions, the Agrupació Deportiva Barcelonista Collblanc, a penya that was actually a football team, was also created.
Many names and relations between penyes
In 1963, after managing FC Barcelona for one season, and at the age of 35, Kubala, to everyone’s surprise, expressed his desire to play football again. Barça refused and, annoyed, Kubala signed for Espanyol. With this reaction from the man who had been the great idol of the blaugrana fans, the Penya Kubala was forced by the FC Barcelona board to change its name. The new name chosen was Agrupació Deportiva Barcelonista Collblanc, which we will talk about in another chapter.
Three decades later, the Penya de Sants suffered a significant decline in membership that they just couldn’t resist. For this reason, in the 1990s, they reached an agreement with their neighbours in Collblanc, and in 2001 the two penyes merged under a new name that has lasted until today: Penya Collblanc-Sants.
An undetermined age
And now it is time to ask ourselves the question: how old can this penya be? If we follow the official line, as it is a new penya, the age will have to be counted from its new foundation in 2001. Nor should we rule out establishing the foundation of the Penya Collblanc-Sants in the year in which it was founded in Collblanc, as this was the one that would absorb the one from Sants. Or perhaps, if we are going to date the beginning, we could also date it to 1956, which is the year Penya Kubala was founded, the predecessor of the Penya from Collblanc. However, from a historical point of view, it wouldn’t be unfair to date it back to 1946, which is when the Penya de Sants was founded, making it the oldest and longest-lived supporters’ club in the entire FC Barcelona universe.
To top it all off, this Penya Kubala, which had disappeared or changed its name – according to different versions – between 1963-65, while the Hungarian stayed in Sarriá, appears on a youth football card from 1967. Did they keep the name internally? Only on a sporting level? Who knows. Quite a puzzle.
Be that as it may, it seems that not even the Penya Collblanc-Sants members themselves have contemplated the possibility of claiming the change of date of the foundation of the penya. Therefore, there is no need to start a new controversy now. In later chapters, there will be the version of the current directors of the penya itself. One conclusion is clear: the world of penyes is a whole universe of which only a small percentage has been explored.
