Catalonia International Trophy

Catalonia International Trophy
	Catalonia receiving the trophy conquered in 2010 against Honduras
Organising body	Catalan Football Federation
Founded	December 2009
Region	International (played in Catalonia)
Number of teams	2
Current champions	Tunisia (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)	Catalonia (3 titles)

The Catalonia International Trophy (Catalan: Trofeu Catalunya Internacional, Spanish: Trofeo Catalunya Internacional) is an association football friendly tournament organised in Spain by the Catalan Football Federation and which the Catalonia national team plays against another national team. It was created in 2009 and is held annually at the end of December.

History

Since 1997, the Catalan national team has played an international friendly match nearly every year, coinciding with the Christmas holidays. In 2009, in the context of Catalan aspirations to participate in official FIFA or UEFA competitions, the president of the Catalan Football Federation, Jordi Casals, announced the conversion of friendlies into an annual tournament, named the Catalonia International Trophy. The artist Joan Mora donated a sculpture symbolising the four bars of the Catalan flag as a prize for the winner.[1]

On 22 December 2009, the first edition, Johan Cruyff's Catalonia won 4–2 against Diego Maradona's Argentina.[2] After that, four more games were held against Honduras, Tunisia, Nigeria and Cape Verde. In 2014 and 2015, centennial challenge matches were played against the Basque Country (also an unofficial national team) with the matches against FIFA teams resuming in 2016 with another meeting with Tunisia. However, no matches were played by Catalonia at Christmas in 2017 or 2018.

Fixtures and results

Fixtures

22 December 2009 (2009-12-22) First edition	Catalonia	4–2	Argentina	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
20:30	S. García 44' Bojan 56' Sergio 70' (pen.) Hurtado 76'	Report	Pastore 63' Di María 72'	Stadium: Camp Nou Attendance: 53,000 Referee: Alfonso Álvarez (Spain)

28 December 2010 (2010-12-28) Second edition	Catalonia	4–0	Honduras	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
19:00	Corominas 26' S. García 50' Bojan 60', 71'	Report		Stadium: Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Attendance: 28,150 Referee: Xavier Estrada Fernández (Spain)

30 December 2011 (2011-12-30) Third edition	Catalonia	0–0	Tunisia	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
19:00		Report		Stadium: Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Attendance: 36,545 Referee: Alfonso Álvarez (Spain)

2 January 2013 (2013-01-02)^[a] Fourth edition	Catalonia	1–1	Nigeria	Cornellà de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain
19:00	Sergio 3' (pen.)	Report	Dike 55'	Stadium: Estadi Cornellà-El Prat Attendance: 27,234 Referee: Xavier Estrada Fernández (Spain)

30 December 2013 (2013-12-30) Fifth edition	Catalonia	4–1	Cape Verde	Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
19:00	S. García 17', 18' Bojan 19' Riera 64'	Report	Djaniny 10'	Stadium: Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Attendance: 20,700 Referee: Alfonso Álvarez (Spain)

28 December 2016 (2016-12-28) Sixth edition	Catalonia	3–3 (2–4 p)	Tunisia	Girona, Catalonia, Spain
20:00	Gerard 35' S. García 69' Verdú 79'	Report	Msakni 9', 30', 67'	Stadium: Estadi Montilivi Attendance: 8,311 Referee: Alfonso Álvarez (Spain)
	Penalties
	Verdú Víctor Álvarez Vázquez Riera		Sassi Dhaouadi Bguir Azouni Khalifa

Results

Year	Host	Winners	Runners-up
2009	Barcelona	Catalonia	Argentina
2010		Catalonia	Honduras
2011		Tunisia^[b]	Catalonia
2012^[a]	Cornellà de Llobregat	Nigeria^[b]	Catalonia
2013	Barcelona	Catalonia	Cape Verde
2016	Girona	Tunisia	Catalonia

Records and statistics

Sergio García is the top scorer in the history of the tournament with 6 goals.

Results summary

Position	Team	Participations	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %	Trophies
1	Catalonia	6	6	3	3	0	16	11	+5	050.00	3
2	Tunisia	2	2	1	1	0	3	3	+0	050.00	2
3	Nigeria	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	+0	000.00	1
1	Argentina	1	1	0	0	1	2	4	−2	000.00	0
	Cape Verde	1	1	0	0	1	1	4	−3	000.00
	Honduras	1	1	0	0	1	0	4	−4	000.00

Table of winners

Team	Winner	Runner-up
Catalonia	3 (2009, 2010 and 2013)	3 (2011, 2012,^[a] 2015 and 2016)
Tunisia	2 (2011^[b] and 2016)
Nigeria	1 (2012)^[a]^[b]
Argentina		1 (2009)
Honduras		1 (2010)
Cape Verde		1 (2013)

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Goals scored
1	Sergio García	6
2	Bojan	4
3	Youssef Msakni	3
4	Sergio	2
5	10 players Álvaro Vázquez Ángel Di María Bright Dike Djaniny Ferran Corominas Gerard Javier Pastore Joan Verdú Moisés Hurtado Oriol Riera	1

Notes and references

Notes

^
2012 Catalonia International Trophy was played on 2 January 2013.
^
Match drawn and trophy awarded to visiting team on fair play basis.

References

"Casals: "Catalunya debe jugar contra las mejores 15 selecciones del mundo"" [Casals: "Catalonia must play against the best 15 teams in the world"] (in Spanish). El Economista. 10 December 2012.
"La Selección falló demasiado y cayó ante Catalunya sin atenuantes" [The Selection failed too much and fell before Catalonia without attenuating] (in Spanish). Clarín. 22 December 2009.

External links

Official website (in Catalan)

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[cnote_a] 
2012 Catalonia International Trophy was played on 2 January 2013.

[cnote_b] 
Match drawn and trophy awarded to visiting team on fair play basis.

[1] "Casals: "Catalunya debe jugar contra las mejores 15 selecciones del mundo"" [Casals: "Catalonia must play against the best 15 teams in the world"] (in Spanish). El Economista. 10 December 2012.

[2] "La Selección falló demasiado y cayó ante Catalunya sin atenuantes" [The Selection failed too much and fell before Catalonia without attenuating] (in Spanish). Clarín. 22 December 2009.

[a]

[b]