Real Madrid vs Atlético Madrid

Lore & Background

The club was founded on 26 April 1903 as Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid by three Basque students living in Madrid. These founders saw the new club as a youth branch of their childhood team, Athletic Bilbao who they had just seen win the 1903 Copa del Rey Final in the city. In 1904, they were joined by dissident members of Real Madrid. They began playing in blue and white halved shirts, the then colours of Athletic Bilbao.

Bilbao had switched to their current red and white stripes by 1910, whereas the Madrid team only adopted their now traditional red and white striped shirts in 1911. Some believe the change came about because red and white striped tops were the cheapest to make, as the same combination was used to make ticking for mattresses, and the unused cloth was easily converted into football shirts. This contributed to the club's nickname, Los Colchoneros. However, another explanation is that both Athletic Bilbao and Athletic Madrid used to buy Blackburn Rovers' blue and white kits in England.

In late 1909, Juan Elorduy, a former player and member of the board of Athletic Madrid, went to England to buy kits for both teams but failed to find Blackburn kits to purchase; he instead bought the red and white shirts of Southampton (the club from the port city which was his embarkation point back to Spain). An investigation in 2023 proposed an alternative kit origin location as Sunderland, whose team also wore those colours. Athletic Madrid adopted the red and white shirt, leading to them being known as Los Rojiblancos, but opted to keep their existing blue shorts whereas the Bilbao team switched to new black shorts.

Athletic's first ground, the Ronda de Vallecas, was in the eponymous working-class area on the south side of the city. In 1919, the Compañía Urbanizadora Metropolitana—the company that ran the underground communication system in Madrid—acquired some land, near the Ciudad Universitaria. In 1921, Athletic Madrid became independent of parent-club Athletic Bilbao and moved into a 35,800-seater stadium built by the company, the Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid.

Reader's Guide

Atlético are one of the most successful Spanish clubs, having won 11 La Liga titles, including a league and cup double in 1996. Further domestic trophies include 10 Copa del Rey titles, two Supercopas de España, one Copa de la Liga and one Copa Eva Duarte. They have also won numerous titles in Europe, including the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962, the UEFA Europa League in 2010, 2012 and 2018, and the UEFA Super Cup in 2010, 2012 and 2018, in addition to the 1974 Intercontinental Cup. In the UEFA Champions League, Atlético reached the final in 1974, 2014 and 2016. They sustain a standing rivalry with Madrid neighbours Real Madrid, with whom they contest the Madrid derby.