newsoccer-station: REAL MADRID

Real Madrid

Full name

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol

Nickname(s)

"Los Vikingos" (The Vikings)
"Los Blancos" (The Whites)
"Los Merengues" (The Meringues)

Founded

6 March 1902
(as Sociedad Madrid FC)

Ground

Santiago Bernabéu
Madrid, Spain
(Capacity: 80,400)

Chairman

Head Coach

League

La Liga, 1^st





Home colours





Away colours

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (English: Madrid Royal Football Club, also known as Real Madrid, Los Blancos, Los Merengues) is a professional Spanish football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902, it plays in La Liga and was the most successful football club of the 20th century, having won a record thirty-one La Liga titles, seventeen Copa del Rey and a record nine UEFA Champions League titles. The team was a founding member of the now defunct G-14 group of leading European football clubs.

The club plays its home games in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. Real Madrid is unusual in that, unlike most football clubs, it has been owned and operated only by its members (socios) since 1902. On December 23, 2000, FIFA awarded the Spanish team the title of the "Best Club of the 20th Century". Los Blancos is the most successful club in UEFA club football competitions history with nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups; more than any other European club.^[9]

Real Madrid is the biggest and most extensive football club in the world according to the case studies at Harvard University in 2007. It is also the richest one in terms of revenue.

Football was introduced to Madrid by the professors and students of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza who included several Oxbridge graduates. They founded the club Football Sky in 1895, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. This club split in 1900 into two different clubs New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Club Español de Madrid. The president of the latter club was Julián Palacios. The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of Sociedad Madrid FC on March 6, 1902. The first president was Juan Padrós Rubió, the first secretary was Manuel Mendío and the first treasurer was José de Gorostizaga. Juan Padrós Rubió would be later succeeded by his brother, Carlos Padrós from Spain. Only three years after its foundation, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first major title in the Estadio Chamartín stadium. The team won the first of four consecutive Copa del Rey titles (at that time the only statewide competition). In 1912 it moved to its first ground called Campo de Rose after moving between some minor grounds. In 1920 the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after the King granted the title of Real (Royal) to the club.

Santiago Bernabéu Yeste became President in 1945. 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 the signing of Alfredo Di Stéfano and built the world's first multinational side.

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 Milan Ceko and created what today is known as the UEFA Champions League. It was under Bernabéu's guidance, that Real Madrid became established 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 memorable 7–3 Hampden Park final against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960. Winning the competition five consecutive times saw Real permanently awarded the original cup and earning the right to wear the UEFA badge of honour. 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 - a first in the competition. It was also runner-up in 1962, 1964 and 1981. The team have also won the UEFA Cup twice and was twice runner-up in the European Cup Winners Cup.

By the early 1980s, Real Madrid had lost its grasp on the La Liga title until a new batch of home-grown stars, known as La Quinta del Buitre started to dominate Spanish football. The name ("Vulture's Cohort") was derived from the nickname given to one of its members, Emilio Butragueño. The other four members were Manolo Sanchís, Martín Vázquez, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza. With La Quinta del Buitre (reduced to four members when Pardeza left the club for Zaragoza in 1986) Real Madrid had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe during the second half of the 1980s, winning two UEFA Cups and five Spanish championships in a row.

Martín Vázquez went to play for Torino in 1990. He made a return to Real Madrid in 1992, leaving the club again for good in 1995 (to Deportivo La Coruña). In 1995 and 1996 Butragueño and Míchel left the club and went to play for Atlético Celaya in Mexico. 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 and Fernando Redondo. As a result, Real Madrid (with the addition of Fernando Morientes in 1997) finally ended its 32-year wait for the seventh European Cup in 1998 under manager Jupp Heynckes, defeating Juventus 1–0 in the final, thanks to a goal from Predrag Mijatović.

In July 2000 Florentino Pérez was elected club president vowing to erase the club's debt and modernise the club's facilities, however the primary electoral promise that propelled Pérez to victory was the signing of Luís Figo. On July 16, Pérez won the election.The club controversially got its training ground re-zoned and used the money to begin to assemble the famous Galáctico side including players such as 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 then failed to win a major trophy for the next three seasons.

Ramón Calderón was elected as club president in 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. However, despite the achievement of winning La Liga, Capello was sacked one month later, in June 2007, and was replaced by German manager Bernd Schuster. Under Bernd Schuster, the club won its 31 La Liga title in 2007-08 season.

Honours

Domestic

La Liga

Winners (31 - record): 1931–32, 1932–33, 1953–54, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1994–95, 1996–97, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08

Runners-up (17): 1928-29, 1933-34, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1941-42, 1944-45, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1965-66, 1980-81, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1998-99, 2004-05, 2005-06

Copa del Rey

Winners (17): 1904–05, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08, 1916–17, 1933–34, 1935–36, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1961–62, 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1988–89, 1992–93

Runners-up (19): 1902–03, 1915–16, 1917–18, 1923–24, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1932–33, 1939–40, 1942–43, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1967–68, 1978–79, 1982–83, 1989–90, 1991–92, 2001–02, 2003–04