On March 6, 1902, the founding of Madrid Club took place. Under the chairmanship of Juan Padros, the club’s by-laws were approved. The team played in its early years at various stadiums throughout Madrid until O’Donnell Stadium was established as the club’s home ground in 1912.

As the sport grew across Spain and football began to gain more fan following, Los Blancos were one of the pioneers and helped create tournaments such as the Copa del Rey, in which they won the Cup. 4 of the first 6 seasons held. After being awarded the title ‘Real’ by King Alfonso

Mr. Santiago Bernabeu is not only one of the best players, but also one of the most important figures in Real Madrid history . Throughout his football career, he only played for the Royal team. After retiring, he became football director, assistant coach and then President of the team from September 1943 to 1978. This was also the most glorious period in Real Madrid’s history, establishing Their leading position of power in world football.

It was Mr. Santiago Bernabeu who made efforts to create a tournament between the best teams in Europe, the premise of opening the C1 Cup. Real also quickly won the first 5 championships, building a world-class reputation. He also created a generation of talented players such as Alfredo Di Stefano, Paco Gento and Ferenc Puskas. During his tenure, Bernabeu won 30 titles until his death in 1978 and the club’s stadium now bears his name.

In 1952, Santiago Bernabeu organized a friendly match to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the team’s founding. He invited the team from Colombia: Millonario. Alfredo Di Stefano played in that match, but soon an argument broke out between Millonario’s club and River Plate.

Both claim to own Di Stefano and this has opened up opportunities for Barcelona and Real Madrid to negotiate for his signature. Di Stefano flew to Spain shortly afterwards to sign for Barcelona, ​​but ended up joining Real. He changed the history of the Spanish capital team, becoming one of the greatest players in the club as well as world football.

Real Madrid swept across Europe in the early years of the European Cup, winning the first five seasons. The generation of Di Stefano, Gento, Hector Rial, Raymond Kopa, Puskas, Jose Maria Zarraga, Rafael Lesmes and Jose Santamaria has done what no other team has been able to do until now. It was not until 1966, when only Gento remained of the golden generation, that Real won its 6th C1 Cup championship.

In the early 1980s, a generation of talented players were promoted to the first team after impressive performances at the Real Castilla training facility. Headed by Emilio Butragueno as well as Michel, Martin Vazquez, Manolo Sanchis and Miguel Pardeza bring new vitality to Real. Journalist Julio Cesar Iglesias at that time gave them the nickname Quinta del Buitre.

Quinta del Buitre brought home two UEFA Cups and five consecutive La Liga titles, although this outstanding generation was never able to win the Champions League.

When Butragueno’s era passed, “Lord of the Rings” Raul Gonzalez emerged as the next great generation. Raul and his teammates did what previous generations could not do, helping Real win the Champions League in 1998, ending a 32-year period of not reaching the top of Europe. Success followed success, because Los Blancos then won the Champions League in 2000 (8th championship) and in 2002 (9th).

In 2003, President Florentino Perez signed David Beckham and a year later another English player, Michael Owen. The duo of famous English players, along with previous contracts such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo Nazario and Luis Figo, formed the first galaxy (Galaticos) of the Royal Spanish team.

Besides expertise, this generation of Galaticos brings huge economic benefits to Real thanks to sports marketing activities and image copyrights. The Bernabeu stadium is constantly packed every time Real plays here. However, the most unfortunate thing is that they could not get their hands on the Champions League championship , suffering an extremely painful defeat in the mid-2000s.

Perez returned for another term as President in 2009 and he announced that he wanted to build his second galaxy at the Bernabeu. To affirm his ambition, he made Ronaldo the most expensive contract in history, spending 96 million euros on MU.

Ronaldo became the best footballer in the world at the time, leading Man United to Champions League success in 2008. Real Madrid felt they had signed the player who could end their trophy drought in Europe and it is considered the best contract in history. Ronaldo scored 451 goals in 438 matches, breaking all scoring records in the team’s history.

After years of failure in the Champions League, coach Carlo Ancelotti finally brought Real Madrid back to the top of European football, winning in Lisbon in 2014 by defeating city rivals Atletico Madrid.

La Decima has become an obsession for Los Blancos, with the club spending a lot of money on players who cannot get them over the line. Fortunately, the thirst for the title has been quenched and that is the foundation for them to assert their dominance in the following years.

Two years after the championship in Lisbon, Real Madrid once again reached the Champions League final and defeated Atletico on penalties. Coach Zinedine Zidane, who was appointed head coach in January 2016, won his first European title in the Royal team’s colors as a coach.

Success continued to come to Zidane a year later, when Real reached the final in Cardiff (Wales) and defeated Juventus with a score of 4-1. In 2018, despite many difficulties, the French strategist still steered Real to the final match in the Champions League before overcoming Liverpool in Kiev (Ukraine). That was Zidane’s third consecutive Champions League title and also the 13th title in Real history, thereby helping them consolidate their position as the greatest team in tournament history.