Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal maˈðɾið ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol] (listen), meaning Real Madrid Football Club), commonly known as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has worn a white home jersey since its inception. The honorary title real, meaning “royal” in Spanish, was awarded to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920. Awarded with the Crown in Heraldry. Since 1947, Real Madrid have played their home games at the 81,044-seat Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the center of Madrid. Unlike most European sports organisations, members of Real Madrid (Socios) have owned and run the club throughout its history.
Real Madrid is one of the most supported teams internationally. [6] The club is valued at $5.1 billion in 2022, making it the most valuable soccer team in the world. [7] In 2021, it is the second highest earning football club in the world with annual revenue of 640.7 million euros. [8]
One of three founding members of La Liga (along with Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona) that have never been relegated from the top flight since its founding in 1929, Real Madrid has many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and El Derbi Madrileño Atlético de Madrid. The club established itself as a major force in Spanish and European football in the 1950s and 60s, winning five consecutive titles and six European Cups, and reaching two other finals. That success was repeated domestically, with Madrid winning 12 league titles in 16 years. The team, which included Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento and Raymond Kopa, is considered by some in the sport to be the greatest of all time team. [9][10][11] Real Madrid would later become known for their “Galacticos” policy, which included signing the best players in the world, such as Ronaldo, Zidane and David Beckham. [12] On June 26, 2009, Madrid signed Cristiano Ronaldo for a record £80 million (€94 million), who later became the club’s top scorer and one of its most successful players.
In domestic football, the club has won 68 trophies; a record 35 La Liga titles, 19 Copa del Rey titles, 12 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Duarte Cup and 1 La Liga Cup. [16] In European football, Real Madrid has won a record 21 trophies, [Note 1] 14 European Cup/Champions League titles, 2 UEFA Cup titles and a record [Note 2] 5 European Cup titles. Super Bowl winner. In global competition, they set a record eight World Club Championship titles. [Note 3]
Real Madrid was named the best football club of the 20th century by FIFA, and won the FIFA Century Club Award on December 11, 2000 with 42.35% of the votes[22], and won the FIFA Century Club Award on May 20. Centennial Award – 2004 Order of Merit. [23] The club was named the best European club of the 20th century by IFFHS on 11 May 2010. Real Madrid is the only club to have won the European Cup/Champions League three times in a row, the first in 1955-56, 1956-57 and 1957-58 and the second in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017- 18 seasons. In May 2022, they won a record-breaking 14th European Cup, having won it five times in the past nine seasons. Real Madrid are the first club in all five European leagues to win 100 trophies in all competitions. [24] As of March 2023, Real Madrid ranks fifth in the UEFA club rankings, behind Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. [25]
Real Madrid’s origins date back to the days when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, including several graduates of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. They founded (Sociedad) Sky Football in 1897, commonly known as La Sociedad (Association) because it is the only team based in Madrid that plays in Moncloa on Sunday mornings. In 1900, conflict among members led some of them to leave the club and form a new club, Nueva Sociedad de Football (New Football Association), to differentiate itself from Sky Football. Opponents include Julian Palacios, widely recognized as Real Madrid’s first president, Juan Padros and Carlos Padros, brothers and future Real Madrid presidents. In 1901 the new club was renamed Madrid Football Club. Later, after a reorganization in 1902, Sky changed its name to the “New Foot-Ball Club”. On March 6, 1902, after a new board chaired by Juan Padrós was elected, the Madrid Football Club was officially founded.[4] The Padrós brothers called other fans for a meeting in the back room of the family business, Al Capricho. They see football as a grassroots sport that should be accessible to people from all walks of life and believe the new club should embody that philosophy. The brothers proposed the name FC Madrid and it was unanimously approved. There is also a fixed membership fee, two pesetas per month, and the color of the jersey has been chosen to be white in honor of Corinthian Football Club, a famous English team that Juan Padros met on a trip.
Three years after its founding, in 1905, FC Madrid won its first title by beating Athletic Bilbao in the final of the Spanish Cup. The club became one of the founding teams of the Royal Spanish Football Federation on January 4, 1909, when club president Adolfo Meléndez signed the founding agreement of the Spanish Football Federation. After moving between several locations, the team moved to Campo de O’Donnell in 1912. In 1920, the club’s name was changed to Real Madrid in honor of King Alfonso XIII. Award the Club Royal (Royal) title. [32]
In 1929 the first Spanish football league was established. Real Madrid led the way to the final game of their first league season, with a loss to Athletic Bilbao meaning they finished second behind Barcelona. [33] Real Madrid won their first league title in the 1931/32 season and defended it the following year.
On April 14, 1931, the arrival of the Second Spanish Republic meant that the club lost its royal title and the royal crown on its crest, and changed its name to Madrid Football Club at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Football played throughout World War II. On June 13, 1943, Madrid defeated Barcelona 11-1 in the second leg of the Copa del Generalis semi-final. The Spanish Cup was renamed in honor of General Franco. 35] Barcelona won the first leg 3-0 at Les Corts in Catalonia. Madrid complained that referee Fombona Fernández allowed all three of Barcelona’s goals,[36] and the home fans whistled in Madrid too, accusing them of using hooligan tactics while Fombona allowed it. Le Paolo described the whistle as “clearly intended to attack Spanish representatives”. [37] Barcelona fans were banned from traveling to Madrid. On the day of the second leg, Barcelona were insulted as soon as they left their hotel and stones were thrown at their bus. “With five minutes left, our box was full of coins,” Barcelona forward Mariano Gonçalvo said of the incident. Barcelona goalkeeper Luis Miro rarely got close to his defensive line – As he did so, he held the stone in his hand. As Francisco Calvet recounts: “They shouted: Red Army! Separatists! … A bottle nearly hit Sospedra, and if she hit him, she would kill him. Everything was prepared Alright.” [38]
Real Madrid led 2-0 within half an hour. The third goal came when Barcelona’s Benito Garcia was sent off after Calvert claimed it was a “perfectly normal tackle”. Madrid’s José Lopez Corona recalled: “They were a bit frustrated,” while Angel Moore retorted: “At that point we were like, ‘Go ahead, score as many goals as you want. Ball’.”[39] Madrid made it 8-0 at half-time; two goals were also disallowed for offside, and Barcelona scored three more in the second half, who responded with a last-minute consolation goal. [40] According to football writer Sidlo, “The match was relatively rarely mentioned [since] and it was not a result that Madrid particularly celebrated. In fact, 11-1 holds a much more important place in Barca’s history It was the match that first identified Madrid as the team of the dictatorship and Barcelona as its victim.”[36] Fernando Argila, Barcelona’s substitute goalkeeper in the 1943 match, said: “No competition. At least not until this game.”[41]
Santiago Bernabéu became president of Real Madrid in 1943. [42] During his tenure, the club was rebuilt after the Civil War, and he oversaw the construction of the club’s current stadium, the Estadio Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (now known as the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu), as well as its Ciudad Deportiva training facility. Also, in the 1950s, former Real Madrid amateur player Miguel Malbo founded the Real Madrid Youth Academy or “Cantera”, now known as La Fábrica. Beginning in 1953, he pursued a strategy of recruiting world-class players from abroad, most notably Alfredo Di Stéfano
In 1955, based on the idea of French sports journalist and editor of L’Equipe Gabriel Harnott, the Bernabeu, Bedrinian and Gustave Sebes created the Eurocup, a competition for European league titles. The Intercontinental Championship, now known as the UEFA Champions League.[44] Under the leadership of the Bernabeu, Real Madrid established itself as a major player in Spanish and European football. The club won five consecutive European Cups between 1956 and 1960, including a 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 final at Hampden Park. [43] After these five successive successes, Real Madrid received the original trophy permanently, as well as the right to wear the UEFA Badge of Honor. [45] Real Madrid’s success in Europe was based on their unprecedented domestic dominance, with the club winning 12 of 16 league titles between 1953-54 and 1968-69, including five in a row from 1961-65 , and eventually the runner-up tripled again.
The club won the European Cup for the sixth time in 1966, beating Partizan Belgrade 2-1 in the final with a team composed entirely of players of the same nationality, the first place in the competition. This team is called Yé-yé. The name “Yé-yé” comes from the refrain “Yeah, yeah, yeah” from the Beatles’ song “She Loves You,” when the four members of the group posed for Marca and impersonated the Beatles band. The yé-yé generation also won the European runner-up in 1962[49] and 1964[47]. In the 1970s, Real Madrid won 6 league titles and 3 Spanish cups. [50] The club participated in their first European Cup Winners’ Cup in the 1970/71 season, and lost 2-1 to English side Chelsea in a replay to reach the final. On July 2, 1978, club president Santiago Bernabéu died during the World Cup in Argentina. FIFA ordered three days of mourning during the game in his memory. [52] The following year, the club organized the first Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu in honor of its former president.
The Bernabéu was president of Real Madrid for almost 35 years, during which time his club won 1 Intercontinental Cup, 6 European Cups, 16 La Liga titles, 6 Spanish Cups, 2 Latin American Cups and 1 Duarte cup champion.
