The 50’s meant a new impulse for some penyes that had been affected by the Civil War, of which only one survived. At the end of the 50s, full of ups and downs, there were more than 30 supporters’ clubs. They witnessed the initial excitement with the Barça of the Cinc Copes, the disillusionment with the frustrated signing of Di Stéfano, and again the excitement of the inauguration of the Camp Nou and the subsequent arrival of Helenio Herrera as coach.
At the same time, Real Madrid was winning a new trophy organized by a prestigious French newspaper that would later become the European Cup, but Barça was growing with new signings and in the 1958/59 season brought about a squad that has been considered by many historians as the one with the most stars in the Club’s history. The players who still remained from the Cinc Copes era were joined by others who had served as relievers along the way and some newcomers who were considered world stars from different countries. Football was in full swing, the stadiums were full and Barça, like its penyes, had managed to rise like a phoenix from its own ashes, produced by the Spanish war of the late 1930s and the harsh post-war period with the background noise of the Second World War. In the 1958/59 and 1959/60 seasons, it would win two consecutive Leagues.
The Penya Sevillana de Barcelona
In previous chapters, mention was made of the Penya Gol de Dalt, the only survivor of the war, as well as the Penya Solera and the Penya de Sants. There is also information of a penya formed by people from Seville, it is not known if in Seville or in Catalonia, which was created unofficially during the 50’s and was called Penya Sevillana del Barcelona. Be that as it may, and according to information from the Federación de Peñas Barcelonistas de Andalucía, it was never an official penya and there is only a photograph where a group of fans show a banner with this name.
Beginning of the expansion of the penyes
In addition to this, during those memorable 50’s several penyes were created that stood the test of time as official penyes. Of the more than 30 that existed, less than half have survived to the present day, according to all the research carried out. Starting with the Penya Solera de Castellar del Vallès, the oldest official supporters’ club in existence today, they will be the protagonists of future chapters and will lead to the first supporters’ club created outside Catalonia: the Peña Barcelonista Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This will be the starting point of the different penyes that appeared already in the difficult 60s. At that time, there were problems with the Francoist authorities, who never looked favorably on the creation of associations suspected of hiding intentions forbidden by the Dictatorship behind the passion for a football team.
From this point on, there was an expansion of the penyes world until the end of the 20th century. From the creation of a penya in Andorra at the beginning of the 1960s, it would take almost twenty years to witness the birth of the first supporters’ club outside Spain and Andorra. This pioneering event would take place in a very special place at that time: the city of Leningrad, in the middle of the Soviet Union. This story will be explained in later chapters.
