header

Real Madrid Badge

Real Madrid

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol has been one of the superpowers in European football since the middle of the last century. Indeed, they were awarded the honour of “Best club of the 20 th century by FIFA, an award for their huge domestic success and also for their domination of Europe. Real Madrid was not always named thus and the “Real” (or “Royal”) part of the name was only added after the club received a blessing from King Alfonso XIII in 1920. The club play in a white strip and they are commonly known as “Los Merengues” (the whites). The club's home is at the Santiago Bernebéu stadium in Madrid, it is one of Europe's finest and holds over 80,000 fans and is now also a huge tourist attraction in the city. Since the start of the Spanish national league in 1928, Madrid have never been relegated from the top division.
The start of the clubs success really came under the Franco regime – he saw the club as an excellent propaganda vehicle and poured resource into the club to try to make them a dominating force in Spain and beyond. It is from this point that one of the greatest rivalries in football was born with Catalan club Barcelona. The suppression of the Catalan language and culture by Franco's regime immediately put Barcelona in opposition to Madrid, the team who seemed to represent the dictator's regime and some unsavoury match fixing incidents further soured relationships and made the rivalry all the more fierce.
Probably Madrid's finest period came between 1955 and 1960 when they won an unprecedented five European Cup's in a row. This really put the club on the map as a dominant force in Europe and no club has matched the feat since. Probably the finest display came in the 1960 final where they demolished their German opposition, Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3. Real have since gone on to win the trophy four more times and this total of 9 is better than any other team.