John Parsons Alexander (14 April 1875 - 18 November 1960), was an Anglo-Spanish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a forward for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

. His younger brother,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, followed him every step through. Together with his brother, he is regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of

football in Catalonia Football is the most important sport in Catalonia and was introduced in the late 19th century by a combination of mostly British immigrant workers and visiting sailors, and students returning from Britain. Catalonia led the way in the development ...

, taking part in some of the earliest Catalan clubs in existence such as '' Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona'', where he stood out as a great striker, netting some of the first goals in the history of Catalan football. Parsons is best known for his role in FC Barcelona's beginnings, being among the 11 founders of the club in 1899, and then serving the club as its vice-president between 1900 and 1901 and as a player between 1899 and 1904, netting 15 goals in 41 appearances and helping his side win the 1901–02 Copa Macaya, the club's very first trophy, and helping his side reach the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the 1902 Copa de la Coronación, in which he scored in a 2–1 loss. He was also a great fan of philately, receiving several awards and distinctions throughout his life.

Playing career

Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona

His family, of English origins, settled in Barcelona in 1870, where John was born on 14 April 1875. Together with his brother William, he was one of the first pioneers of football in Catalonia, joining the ''Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona'' in 1895, with whom he played several training matches (Blue vs reds), including the one on 2 February 1895, in which he scored twice to help the Blues to a 4–1 victory. Parsons also played both games against ''Asociación de Foot-Ball de Torelló'' on 24 March and 14 April 1895, which was the very first time that teams from two different cities played against each other in Catalonia, and he rose to the occasion, netting a brace at Bonanova in an 8–3 local win and another one at

Torelló Torelló is a Spanish municipality in the ''comarca'' of Osona, in the Province of Barcelona, Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' ...

in a 3–5 loss. Barcelona FC 1895

Parsons played several

friendly matches An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

at Can Tunis and a few others at Bonanova between 1892 and 1895, where he stood out as a great goal scorer, however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact amount of goals he netted is unknown. Despite some encouraging first steps, this Society was never officially established and when its founder and captain James Reeves returned to the United Kingdom in the autumn of 1895, it was the Catalans and the Parsons brothers who took the reins of the team, but without Reeves, the entity soon declined, collapsed and seems to disappear around 1896. Football in the city then crosses its first crisis which lasted three years from 1896 until 1899, with the Parsons playing an important role in the sport's return to the city in 1899, helping with the creations of '' Team Anglès'' and

in 1899.

FC Barcelona

He and his brother were among the eleven men that attended the infamous meeting held at the Gimnasio Solé on 29 November 1899 which saw the birth of Foot-Ball Club Barcelona. However, in Barcelona's official debut on 8 December 1899, the two Parsons brothers played for the rival team, ''Team Anglès'', which consisted of members of the British colony living in Barcelona. Together with Bartomeu Terradas,

Arthur Witty Arthur Whitty Cotton, also known as Don Arturo, was a footballer, club president and businessman. Whitty played for FC Barcelona in the first Copa del Rey final and later served as club president between 1903 and 1905. He was also a successful ...

and

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

Joan Gamper Hans Max Gamper-Haessig (; 22 November 1877 – 30 July 1930), commonly known as Joan Gamper (), was a Swiss-born football executive and versatile athlete. He founded football clubs in Switzerland and Spain, most notably FC Barcelona and FC Zür ...

, he was part of the Barça side that participated in the first regulated football championship played on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

, the

Copa Macaya The Hispania Athletic Club Tournament–Alfonso Macaya Cup, popularly known as the Copa Macaya, was a football competition contested by clubs from Catalonia which ran from 1900 until 1903, disappearing at the same time of its organizers, Hispania ...

in 1900–01, in which he scored 8 goals, including two

hat-tricks A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...

in 0–13 and 14–0 trashings of Franco-Española, but despite his goalscoring prowess, Barça finished the tournament as runner-ups to Hispania AC. These 8 goals earned him a spot in the top scorers of the tournament only behind Gustavo Green(9) and Joan Gamper(31). In the following season, however, he helped Barcelona win the 1901–02 Copa Macaya, the club's first-ever piece of silverware, netting two goals on the final matchday on 23 March 1902 in a 15–0 victory over

Català FC Català Futbol Club, and later Català Sport Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed from 1899 until its dissolution in the late 1920s. It was one of the most important entities in the amateur beginnings of football in C ...

. The Copa Macaya is now recognized as the first Catalan championship. In 1902, Parsons was a member of the Barcelona team that participated in the

Copa de la Coronación Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

(predecessor of

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

), featuring in the semi-finals against Real Madrid (then Madrid FC), the very first

El Clásico El Clásico or el clásico (; ca, El Clàssic, ; ) is the name given to any football match between rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions held in the Spanish championship, the term now includes every m ...

in history, and in the

, where he scored Barça's only goal in a 1–2 loss to Club Vizcaya. In 1903, he added a new title to his career, the Copa Barcelona, which was later recognized as the fourth edition of the Catalan Championship.

Retirement

In 1912, he took part together with Joan Gamper, Udo Steinberg and Arthur Witty of the Comité Athlétic of the Football Club Barcelona as a referee and under the presidency of Joaquín Peris de Vargas. He founded a dye factory and dry cleaners under the name of Juan Parsons & Sons. He died in Barcelona on 18 November 1960 at the age of 85.

Honours

FC Barcelona *

: ** Champions: 1901–02 ** Runner-up: 1900–01 * Copa Barcelona: ** Champions: Copa Barcelona *

: ** Runner-up:

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, John 1875 births 1960 deaths Spanish people of English descent Footballers from Barcelona Spanish footballers Association football forwards FC Barcelona players