Real Madrid" redirects here. For the basketball team, see
Real Madrid Baloncesto.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (
Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal maˈðɾið ˈkluβ ðe ˈfutβol] Royal Madrid Football Club), commonly known as
Real Madrid (and in Spain, in football circles, simply as
El Madrid) is a professional
association football club based in
Madrid,
Spain. It is the
most successful team in
Spanish football and was voted by
FIFA as the most successful club of the 20th century, having won a record 31
La Liga titles, 17
Spanish "Copa del Rey" Cups, 8 Spanish Supercups, 1
Spanish "Copa de la Liga" League Cup, 1
Copa Eva Duarte, a record 9
UEFA Champions Leagues, 2
UEFA Cups, 1 UEFA Supercup, and 3 Intercontinental Cups. Real Madrid was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct
G–14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the
European Club Association. The word "Real" in the club's name is the Spanish term for "royal", and was given by the King in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem – several teams in Spain have got this royal distinction:
Real Sociedad,
Real Unión de Irún,
Real Betis, and
Real Zaragoza.
Founded in 1902, Real Madrid has spent its entire history in La Liga, the top league of Spanish football. In the 1940s, the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the
Ciudad Deportiva had to be rebuilt following the
Spanish Civil War. The club established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s. In the 1980s, the club had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe (known as
La Quinta del Buitre), winning two
UEFA Cups, five consecutive Spanish championships, one
Spanish Cup and three
Spanish Super Cups.
The team's traditional home colours are all white, although it initially adopted a blue oblique stripe on the shirt. Its crest has been changed several times in attempts to modernise or re-brand it. The current crest is a modified version of the one first adopted in the 1920s. Real Madrid's home ground is the 80,354-seater
Santiago Bernabéu football stadium in downtown Madrid, where it has played since 1947. In 2010 the
Bernabéu held the final of the
UEFA Champions League.
Real Madrid holds long-standing rivalries with other football clubs, most notably
FC Barcelona, with matches between the two teams referred to as "
el Clásico". Unlike most European football clubs, Real Madrid's members (
socios) have owned and operated the club since its inception. The club is the world's
richest football club (
€401m) in terms of revenue and
the second most valuable and was worth over €950m in 2008.
[3][4]
[edit] History
Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the
Institución libre de enseñanza, which included several
Oxbridge graduates. They founded
Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. It split into two clubs in 1900:
New Foot-Ball de Madrid and
Club Español de Madrid. The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of
Real Madrid Football Club on March 6 in 1902.
[2] Three years after its foundation, in 1905,
Madrid FC won its first title after defeating
Athletic Bilbao in the
Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the founding sides of the
Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909, when club president
Adolfo Meléndez signed the foundation agreement of the Spanish FA. After moving between grounds the team moved to the
Campo de O'Donnell in 1912.
[5] In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after
King Alfonso XIII granted the title of
Real (Royal) to the club.
[6]
In 1929, the first
Spanish football league was founded. Real Madrid led the first edition until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona.
[7] Real Madrid won its first League title in the
1931–32 season. The Whites won the League again the following year, becoming the first side to have won the championship twice.
[8]
Santiago Bernabéu Yeste became president of Real Madrid in 1945.
[9] Under his presidency, the club, the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the
Ciudad Deportiva were rebuilt following the
Spanish Civil War. Beginning in 1953, he embarked upon a strategy of signing world-class players from abroad, the most prominent of them being
Alfredo Di Stéfano.
[10]
In 1955, acting upon the idea proposed by the French sports journalist and editor of
L'Équipe Gabriel Hanot, and building upon the
Copa Latina (a tournament involving clubs from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy), Bernabéu met in the Ambassador Hotel in Paris with Bedrignan and
Gusztáv Sebes and created an exhibition tournament of invited teams from around Europe that would eventually become what today is known as the
UEFA Champions League.
[11] It was under Bernabéu's guidance that Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football. The club won the European Cup five times in a row between 1956 and 1960, which included the 7–3 Hampden Park
final against
Eintracht Frankfurt in
1960.
[10] Winning the competition five consecutive times saw Real permanently awarded the original cup and earning the right to wear the
UEFA badge of honour.
[12] The club won the European Cup for a sixth time in
1966 defeating
FK Partizan 2–1 in
the final with a team composed entirely of nationally born players (known as the
Ye-yé team) – a first in the competition.
[13] The name "Ye-yé" came from the "Yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus in the
Beatles' song "
She Loves You" after four members of the team posed for
Diario Marca dressed in Beatles wigs. The Ye-yé generation was also European Cup runner-up in
1962 and
1964.
[13]
In the 1970s, Real Madrid won 5 league championships and 3 Spanish Cups.
[14] The club played its first
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1971, being defeated by English side
Chelsea 2-1.
[15] On 2 July 1978, club president Santiago Bernabéu died while the
World Cup was being played in
Argentina. In his honour
FIFA decreed three days of mourning during the tournament.
[16] The following year, the club organized the first edition of the
Santiago Bernabéu Trophy in the memory of its former president.
By the early 1980s, Real Madrid had lost its grasp on the
La Liga title until a new batch of home-grown stars brought
domestic success back to the club.
[17] Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias gave to this generation the name
La Quinta del Buitre ("Vulture's Cohort"), which was derived from the nickname given to one of its members,
Emilio Butragueño. The other four members were
Manuel Sanchís,
Martín Vázquez,
Míchel and
Miguel Pardeza.
[18] With
La Quinta del Buitre (reduced to four members when Pardeza left the club for
Zaragoza in 1986) and notable players like goalkeeper
Francisco Buyo, right-back Miguel Porlán
Chendo and
Mexican striker
Hugo Sánchez, Real Madrid had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe during the second half of the 1980s, winning two UEFA Cups, five
Spanish championships in a row, one Spanish cup and three
Spanish Super Cups.
[18]
In the early 1990s,
La Quinta del Buitre split up after Martín Vázquez, Emilio Butragueño and Míchel left the club. In 1996, President
Lorenzo Sanz appointed
Fabio Capello as coach. Although his tenure lasted only one season, Real Madrid was proclaimed league champion and players like
Roberto Carlos,
Predrag Mijatović,
Davor Šuker and
Clarence Seedorf arrived at the club to strengthen a squad that already boasted the likes of
Raúl,
Fernando Hierro,
Iván Zamorano, and
Fernando Redondo. As a result, Real Madrid (with the addition of
Fernando Morientes in 1997) finally ended its 32-year wait for its seventh European Cup. In 1998, under manager
Jupp Heynckes, The Whites defeated Juventus 1–0 in the final thanks to a goal from
Predrag Mijatović.
[19]
In July 2000,
Florentino Pérez was elected club president.
[20] His campaign vowed to erase the club's debt and modernize the club's facilities. However, the primary electoral promise that propelled Pérez to victory was the signing of
Luís Figo.
[21] The following year, the club controversially got its training ground rezoned and used the money to begin assembling the famous
Galáctico side including players such as
Zinédine Zidane,
Ronaldo,
Luís Figo,
Roberto Carlos,
Raúl and
David Beckham. It is debatable whether the gamble paid off, as despite a European Cup win in 2002, followed by the League in 2003, the club failed to win a major trophy for the next three seasons.
[22]
Ramón Calderón was elected as club president on 2 July 2006 and subsequently appointed Fabio Capello as the new coach and
Predrag Mijatović as the new sporting director. Real Madrid won the
La Liga title in 2007 for the first time in four years but Capello was sacked.
[23] In the
2007–08 season, The Whites won the domestic league for the
31st time, achieving their first consecutive league title in eighteen years.
[24] On 1 June 2009, Florentino Pérez regained Real Madrid's presidency.
[25][26] Pérez continued with the
Galácticos policy pursued in his first term, buying
Kaká from
A.C. Milan[27] then purchasing
Cristiano Ronaldo from
Manchester United for a record breaking £80 million.
[edit] Crest and colours
The progression of Real Madrid's crest since the Club's formation in 1902.
The first crest had a simple design consisting of a decorative interlacing of the three initials of the club, "MCF" for Madrid Club de Fútbol, in dark blue on a white shirt. The first change in the crest occurred in 1908 when the letters adopted a more streamlined form and appeared inside a circle.
[28] The next change in the configuration of the crest did not occur until the presidency of
Pedro Parages in 1920. At that time,
King Alfonso XIII granted the club his royal patronage which came in the form of the title "Real madrid ", roughly translated as "Royal".
[29] Thus, Alfonso's crown was added to the crest and the club styled itself
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.
[28] With the dissolution of the monarchy in 1931, all the royal symbols (the crown on the crest and the title of Real) were eliminated. The crown was replaced by the dark mulberry band of the Region of Castile.
[8] In 1941, two years after the end of the
Civil War, the crest's "Real Corona", or "Royal Crown", was restored while the mulberry stripe of
Castile was retained as well.
[9] In addition, the whole crest was made full color, with gold being the most prominent, and the club was again called Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.
[28] The most recent modification to the crest occurred in 2001 when the club wanted to better situate itself for the twenty-first century and further standardize its crest. One of the modifications made was changing the mulberry stripe to a more bluish shade.
[28]
| |
| Real Madrid's original kit |
Real Madrid's traditional home colours are all white, although it initially adopted a blue oblique stripe on the shirt (the design was kept in the club crest); but unlike today, dark blue socks were worn.
[7][30] The striped shirt was replaced by an all-white version, modeled after the shirt worn by
Corinthian F.C., in 1902.
[31] In the same year, the blue socks were replaced by black ones. By the early 1940s the manager changed the kit again by adding buttons to the shirt and the club's crest on the left breast (which have remained ever since). On 23 November 1947, in a game against
Atlético Madrid at the
Metropolitano Stadium, Real Madrid became the first Spanish team to wear numbered shirts.
[9]
Real's traditional away colours are all black or all purple. The club's kit is currently manufactured by
Adidas whose contract extends from 1998.
[32][33] Real Madrid's first shirt sponsor,
Zanussi, agreed for the 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85 seasons. Following that, the club was sponsored by
Parmalat and Otaysa before a long-term deal was signed with Teka in 1992.
[34][35] In 2001, Real Madrid ended their contract with Teka and for one season used the Realmadrid.com logo to promote the club's website. Then, in 2002, a deal was signed with
Siemens Mobile and in 2006, the
BenQ Siemens logo appeared on the club's shirt.
[36] Real Madrid's current shirt sponsor is
bwin.com following the economic problems of BenQ Siemens.
[37][38]
[edit] Stadium
Ciudad Real Madrid represents the team training facilities since 2005.
After moving between grounds the team moved to the
"Campo de O'Donnell" in 1912, which remained its home ground for eleven years.
[5] After this period, the club moved for one year to the
Campo de Ciudad Lineal, a small ground with a capacity of 8,000 spectators. After that, Real Madrid moved its home matches to
Estadio Chamartín which was inaugurated on 17 May 1923 with a match against
Newcastle United. In this stadium, which hosted 22,500 spectators, Real Madrid celebrated its first Spanish league title.
[7] After some successes, the 1943 elected president
Santiago Bernabéu decided that the
Estadio Chamartín was not big enough for the ambitions of the club. A new stadium was built and was inaugurated on 14 December 1947.
[9][39] This was the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as it is known today, although it did not acquire this name until 1955.
[10] The first match held on Bernabéu was played between Real Madrid and the Portuguese club
Belenenses and won by The Whites with 3–1, the first goal being scored by Sabino Barinaga.
[9]
The capacity has changed frequently, peaking at 120,000 after a 1953 expansion.
[40][41] Since then, there have been a number of reductions due to modernizations (the last standing places went away in 1998–99 in response to
UEFA regulations which forbids standing at matches in the UEFA competition), countered to some extent by expansions.
[40] The last change was an increase of about five thousand to a capacity of 80,354, effected in 2003. A plan to add a retractable roof has been announced.
[42]
The Bernabéu has hosted the
1964 European Championship final, the
1982 FIFA World Cup final, the
1957,
1969 and
1980 European Cup finals and the
2010 Champions League Final.
[43] The stadium has its own
Madrid Metro station along the 10 line called
Santiago Bernabéu.
[44] On 14 November 2007, the Bernabéu has been upgraded to
Elite Football Stadium status by UEFA.
[45]
On 9 May 2006, the
Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium was inaugurated at the City of Madrid where Real Madrid usually trains. The inaugural match was played between Real Madrid and
Stade Reims, a rematch of the 1956 European Cup final. Real Madrid won the match 6–1 with goals from
Sergio Ramos,
Cassano (2),
Soldado (2), and
Jurado. The venue is now part of the
Ciudad Real Madrid, the club's new training facilities located outside
Madrid in Valdebebas. The stadium holds 5,000 people and is
Real Madrid Castilla's home ground. It is named after former Real footballer Alfredo i Stéfano.
[46]
