James Reeves (footballer)

The two sides of the British Club de Barcelona. Taken on 12 March 1893, its the oldest photo of a Spanish football team. Reeves can be seen sitting in the middle between Mr. Cochran, the blue's captain, and P. Noble.

As part of his "waterworks" duty, Reeves becomes a member of Club Regatas de Barcelona, a club of rowing and sailing, where he soon becomes the spokesman for the club's British members (or British Club Regatas). During his time at Club Regatas, he meets and convinces some of the club's Catalan members to play football, along with some French members as well.[2] Reeves then did the same with the Cricket Club, impressing some of his countrymen with his entrepreneurial spirit, thus achieving a respectable number of partners in a short period of time, but despite the British colony of Barcelona having a large presence in the city, finding 22 individuals (plus the referee) was not an easy task, given that the expatriates came to work and many of them had positions of responsibility.[3] Also, Sunday was not a public holiday at the time. It was not until the end of 1892, after months of hard work, that Reeves finally managed to gather enough players to assemble two teams to start practicing football, although in the vast majority of matches they did not complete the 11s per side. This was the birth of a football Society that became known as the British Club de Barcelona (based on La Rambla) of which he was the founder and leader.[3] At last, on 25 December 1892, they were able to play the first known football match in the city (actually in the neighboring municipality of Sants).[2] Very little is known about that Christmas Day in 1892, only that the venue was near the grounds of the Hippodrome of Can Tunis, and that Reeves was the captain of one of the teams.[2]

Reeves kept organizing football games among members of the British Club de Barcelona, including the infamous match on 12 March 1893 between a blue team captained by Mr. Cochran and a red one led by himself, and Reeves captained by example, netting his side's only goal in a 1–2 loss, with both Blue goals coming from Catalans (Figueras and Barrié), meaning that his club's inclusion of Catalans was paying off.[3] The photograph of these two sides just before the match is widely regarded as the oldest photo of a football team in Spain.[3] Moreover, this game was the catalyst for the first proper chronicle of the dispute of a football match, which appeared in the newspaper La Dinastia on 16 March 1893.[3]

During the winter of 1893–94, he captained the so-called English colony from Barcelona in a series of matches against the Scottish colony from Sant Martí, which was captained by the Scot Willie Gold.[3] They faced each other at least three times on 8 December 1893, 11 March, and 15 April 1894, however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, very little is known about those matches. Local historians claim that this was the first ever 'unofficial' rivalry in Spanish football.

Members of the Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona in 1895. James Reeves sitting second to the right, with the ball on his feet, next to other pioneers of Catalan football such as Alberto Serra and the Parsons brothers.

Despite some encouraging first steps, the British Club de Barcelona, which was never officially established, seems to disappear in the summer of 1894 or changed its name, becoming known as Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona (Barcelona Football Society) during the 1894–95 season, and with the change of name came also the change of field, leaving the Hippodrome of Can Tunis to settle at the Velódromo de la Bonanova, as Reeves wanted a place of easier access to the city center.[3][4] Something that did not change, however, was the captain, as Reeves remained the undisputed leader of the entity, captaining one of the sides that disputed the first football match played in Bonanova on 27 January 1895, which was played by 16 players from the Barcelona Football Society divided into two teams (Blues vs Reds).[4] On 2 February, he captained the Blue Team in a match against the Reds led by Beaty Pownall, and once again he led by example, netting his side's only goal in a 1–4 loss, courtesy of Pownall (1) and John Parsons (2).[5] Apart from the Blue v Red games, the Barcelona Football Society only played two matches in the 1894–95 season, both against a team from Torelló (Torelló Foot-ball Association), which was the very first time that teams from two different cities played against each other in Catalonia, and Reeves was the captain in both games.[2] With a capacity of 3,000, Bonanova was seen completely full on both occasions, and he was the first who gave them something to cheer as he netted the opening goal in an 8–3 local win on 24 March 1895.[6] Reeves played several friendly matches 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 number of goals he netted is unknown.[2] Despite some encouraging first steps with the Barcelona Football Society, the club was never officially established as Reeves just wanted to play football for fun and was not worried about the official status and legal questions involved in a sport that was still in its infancy in Spain.[7]

Coinciding with the closure of the Barcelona Waterworks Company Ltd, Reeves returned to the United Kingdom in the autumn of 1895, leaving the club orphaned in its management.[2] Following his departure, it was the Catalans who took the reins of the team, but without him, the entity soon declined, collapsed and around 1896 this society, which was never officially established, seems to disappear. For this reason, no Briton played football in Spain (that we know of) in 1897 and 1898.[2] They only began to play again in 1899, with the emergence of Team Anglès.