Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [re?al ma?ð?ið ?klu? ðe ?fuð?ol]), commonly known as Real Madrid (and in Spain, in football circles, simply as el Madrid), is a professionalassociation 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 thirty-one LaLiga titles, seventeen Spanish Cups, a record nine European Cups and two UEFA Cups. Real Madrid was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct G–14 group of Europe’s leading football clubs as wellas its replacement, the European Club Association. The word “Real” in the club’s name is the Spanish term for “Royal”, and was added in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem.
Founded in1902, Real Madrid has spent its entire history in the top flight of Spanish football. In the 1940s, the club, the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and the Ciudad Deportiva had to be rebuilt following theSpanish 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 LaQuinta 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 itinitially 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 the1920s. 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 otherfootball 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…
