Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: 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 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.
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.
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium held the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2010 which was won by Internazionale.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol is a Spanish sports club best known for its football team which was ranked as 'The 20th Century's Best Club' by FIFA. The club, which went in place of the Spanish FA, was also one of the founding members of FIFA. They play their home games at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. Real Madrid have been European Champions a record 9 times and have also won a record 29 La Liga titles. The club also operates a reserve football team, Real Madrid Castilla, and a successful basketball team, Real Madrid Baloncesto and are in talks to sponsor a rugby team, CRC Madrid Noroeste. Real Madrid is unusual in that, unlike most football clubs, it has been owned and operated solely by its members (socios) since 1902.
During its history, the club has acquired a number of nicknames. Among the earliest were los merengues, after the white dessert meringue and los blancos. Both simply referred to the club's legendary all-white strip and are the most common to this day. In the 1970s, the nickname los vikingos became popular, possibly due to the signings of several northern European players. More recently, the media dubbed the club los galácticos, referring to club decision to sign star players.
The mid-1950s saw Real Madrid put together a team that included, among others Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Francisco Gento, Héctor Rial, Raymond Kopa, and José Santamaria. These players formed the nucleus of the Real Madrid team that dominated the second half of the 1950s. They won La Liga for first time in over 20 years as Real Madrid in 1954 and retained it in 1955. They were winners again in 1957 and 1958, with only Athletic Bilbao interrupting their sequence. CF Barcelona won La Liga in 1959 and 1960 but between 1961 and 1980 Real Madrid dominated La Liga with the club winning the competition 14 times. This included a five-in-a-row sequence (1961-1965) and two three-in-a-row sequences (1967-69 and 1978-1980). It was during this era that legendary players such as Jose Antonio Camacho, Uli Stielike and Juan Gomez came into the side.
In the early 1980s Real Madrid lost its grip on La Liga but by 1986 they had resumed normal service with another five-in-a-row sequence (1986-90). This team included Hugo Sánchez and the famous 'Quinta del Buitre' - Emilio Butragueño, Manolo Sanchís, Martín Vazquéz, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza.
Real Madrid has also won the Copa del Rey on 17 occasions, and are 7-time winners of the Supercopa de España.
In addition to their domestic success, Real Madrid's reputation as a major club was established by their outstanding record in the European Cup. To date have they have been crowned champions of Europe a record nine times. Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás and other famous players helped the club win 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. The club won for a sixth time in 1966, defeating Partizan Belgrade 2-1 in the final with a team composed entirely of nationally-born players, a first in the competition. They were also runners-up in 1962, 1964 and 1981. Winning the competition five consecutive times saw Real permanently awarded the original cup and earning the right to wear the UEFA badge of honour. They have also won the UEFA Cup twice and were twice runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup.
In 1996 President Lorenzo Sanz appointed Fabio Capello as coach. Although his tenure lasted only one season, in which Real Madrid were proclaimed league champions, the team he built, which included Raúl, Predrag Mijatović, Fernando Redondo, Fernando Hierro, Davor Šuker, Clarence Seedorf, and Roberto Carlos, ended Real Madrid's 32-year wait for their seventh European Cup in 1998 under manager Jupp Heynckes, defeating Juventus 1-0 in the final. Real Madrid would go on to win again in 2000 and 2002 under manager Vicente Del Bosque, with sides including players such as Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman, Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane.
Real Madrid are also three-time winners of the Intercontinental Cup, defeating Peñarol, Vasco da Gama, and Olimpia Asunción in 1960, 1998, and 2002 respectively.