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Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by academics and students of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, including Cambridge and Oxford graduates. They founded Sky Football in 1897, commonly known as La Sociedad. In 1900, conflict caused some members to leave and create Nueva Sociedad de Football, including Julián Palacios (recognized as the first Real Madrid president) and the Padrós brothers. In 1901, this new club was renamed Madrid Football Club. On 6 March 1902, after a new board presided by Juan Padrós, Madrid Football Club was officially founded. The Padrós brothers proposed the name, unanimously accepted, with a membership fee of two pesetas a month. The white shirt was chosen in honour of the English team Corinthian, which Juan Padrós had met on his travels. Three years later, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first title by defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final. The club became a founding member of the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909. In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after King Alfonso XIII granted the title of Real. Real Madrid won its first league title in the 1931–32 season and retained it the following year. On 14 April 1931, the Second Spanish Republic caused the club to lose the title Real and the royal crown, reverting to Madrid Football Club until the end of the Spanish Civil War. On 13 June 1943, Madrid beat Barcelona 11–1 in the second leg of the Copa del Generalísimo semi-finals. The first leg had ended with Barcelona winning 3–0. Barcelona fans were banned from traveling to Madrid. Barcelona's striker Mariano Gonzalvo said, 'Five minutes before the game had started, our penalty area was already full of coins.' Madrid went 2–0 up within half an hour; the third goal brought a sending off for Barcelona's Benito García. Madrid made it 8–0 by half-time and scored three more in the second half, with Barcelona replying with a late consolation goal. According to football writer Sid Lowe, 'This was the game that first formed the identification of Madrid as the team of the dictatorship and Barcelona as its victims.'

In Their Own Story

Santiago Bernabéu became president of Real Madrid in 1943. Under his presidency, the club was rebuilt after the Civil War, and he oversaw the construction of the club's current stadium, Estadio Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (now known as the Santiago Bernabéu), and its training facilities Ciudad Deportiva. During the 1950s, former Real Madrid Amateurs player Miguel Malbo founded Real Madrid's youth academy, known today as La Fábrica. Beginning in 1953, Bernabéu embarked upon a strategy of signing world-class players from abroad, the most prominent being Alfredo Di Stéfano. In 1955, acting upon the idea proposed by Gabriel Hanot, a French sports journalist and editor of L'Équipe, Bernabéu, Ernest Bedrignan, and Gusztáv Sebes created the European Cup, now known as the UEFA Champions League. Under Bernabéu's guidance, Real Madrid won the European Cup five times in a row between 1956 and 1960. This team, which included Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Paco Gento, and Raymond Kopa, is considered by some in the sport to be the greatest of all time. Real Madrid is known for its Galácticos policy, signing the world's best players such as Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and David Beckham. In 2009, Madrid signed Cristiano Ronaldo for a record-breaking £80 million (€94 million) from Manchester United; he became the club's and history's all-time top goal-scorer. Real Madrid develops homegrown talent through La Fábrica, which has produced notable graduates such as Raúl, Iker Casillas, and Dani Carvajal, and has supplied the highest number of players to Europe's top five leagues.

Reader's Guide

Real Madrid is one of the most successful football clubs in the world and the most decorated club in Europe. In Spanish domestic football, the club has won 71 trophies: a record 36 La Liga titles, 20 Copa del Rey, 13 Supercopa de España, a Copa Eva Duarte, and a Copa de la Liga. In international football, Real Madrid have won a record 35 trophies: a record 15 European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, a record six UEFA Super Cups, two UEFA Cups, a joint-record two Latin Cups, a record one Iberoamerican Cup, and a record nine world championships. Madrid has been ranked joint first a record number of times in the IFFHS Club World Ranking. In UEFA's club ranking, Madrid ranks first in the all-time club ranking. Real Madrid is the only club to have won three consecutive titles in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League twice, achieving this in 1956–58 and 2016–18. In 2024, they won a record-extending 15th Champions League title (the sixth in eleven seasons), recognized as such by Guinness World Records. Real Madrid is the first club across all Europe's top-five leagues to win 100 trophies in all competitions. As of May 2026, Real Madrid are ranked 2nd in UEFA club rankings, and first over 2013–23 coefficient. Real Madrid was recognized as the greatest football club of the 20th century, receiving the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004. Real Madrid has the highest number of participations in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League (55), a tournament in which they hold the records for most wins, draws, and goals scored. As one of the three founding members of La Liga never relegated from the top division along with Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid has many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and El Derbi Madrileño with Atlético Madrid.

Did You Know?

• Real Madrid is the only club to have won three consecutive European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles twice: in 1956–58 and 2016–18.
• The club's white home kit was chosen in honour of the English team Corinthian, which Juan Padrós met on his travels.
• Real Madrid's 11–1 win over Barcelona in the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo semi-final is remembered more in Barcelona's history as the game that first identified Madrid as the team of the dictatorship.
• Santiago Bernabéu, along with Gabriel Hanot and Gusztáv Sebes, created the European Cup in 1955.
• Real Madrid became the first football club to make €1 billion ($1.08bn) in revenue in 2024.