[1] In the late 19th century, Catalonia enjoyed the most developed industry in the country, thus attracting many migrant workers, especially Britons, who like in the rest of the world, brought football with them.

[4][a] Although the club was founded in October, Català was not officially established until 17 December 1899,[2] in a meeting held in the Café San Gervasio de Cassolas, in which they formalized the first board of directors with Jaime Vila being named the club's first president, in addition to Víctor Manuel Paniagua as secretary and Miguel Valdés as treasurer, while Manel Mir was appointed the team captain and Guillermo Busquets the vice-captain.

Joan Gamper, who had already founded other clubs in his home country, Zürich, wanted to do the same in his new city, Barcelona, and his initial idea was to join the group of football fans led by Vila that ended up creating Català FC, but Gamper was rejected for being a foreigner, because in its beginnings, Català wanted to promote the local sport, and thus, it only admitted Catalan players to its team.

On 11 February, six players from Escocès FC reinforced Català in a match against Barcelona, being this the first time they played with foreigners.

It was common at the time for players to leave their respective teams to join or found others due to the still dispersed and confusing growth of football.

The members of the Tolosa Gym that founded Català FC had begun using the ex-velodrome for their rehearsals on 22 October,[4] and a few weeks later, on the Christmas Eve of 1899, the venue hosted the very first match between these two clubs.

Bonanova was the home ground of FC Barcelona for nine months, until Català reached an agreement with the owners to exclusively rent it, forcing their rivals to move to Hotel Casanova.

The Barcelona team won 3–1 with goals from Gamper and Otto Maier, thus winning the club's first-ever piece of silverware: An art object made of bronze.