Early years, Civil War and Franco (1902–1945)
Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the
Institución libre de enseñanza, which included several
Oxbridge graduates. They founded
Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. It split into two clubs in 1900:
New Foot-Ball de Madrid and
Club Español de Madrid.
The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of
Madrid Football Club on 6 March 1902.
Three years after its foundation, in 1905,
Madrid FC won its first title after defeating
Athletic Bilbao in the
Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the founding sides of the
Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909, when club president
Adolfo Meléndez signed the foundation agreement of the Spanish FA. After moving between grounds the team moved to the
Campo de O'Donnell in 1912.
In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after
King Alfonso XIII granted the title of
Real (Royal) to the club.
In 1929, the first
Spanish football league was founded. Real Madrid led the first league season until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona.
Real Madrid won its first League title in the
1931–32 season. Real won the League again the following year, becoming the first side to have won the championship twice.
Santiago Bernabéu Yeste and European success (1945–1978)
Santiago Bernabéu Yeste became president of Real Madrid in 1945.
Under his presidency, the club, its stadium
Santiago Bernabéu and its training facilities
Ciudad Deportiva were rebuilt after the
Spanish Civil War damages. Beginning in 1953, he embarked upon a strategy of signing world-class players from abroad, the most prominent of them being
Alfredo Di Stéfano.
In 1955, acting upon the idea proposed by the French sports journalist and editor of
L'Équipe Gabriel Hanot, Bernabéu, Bedrignan and
Gusztáv Sebes created an exhibition tournament of invited teams from around Europe that would eventually become what today is known as the
UEFA Champions League.
It was under Bernabéu's guidance that Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football. The club won the European Cup five times in a row between 1956 and 1960, which included the 7–3 Hampden Park
final against
Eintracht Frankfurt in
1960.
After these five consecutive successes, Real was permanently awarded the original cup and earning the right to wear the
UEFA badge of honour.
The club won the European Cup for a sixth time in
1966 defeating
FK Partizan 2–1 in
the final with a team composed entirely of same nationality players, a first in the competition.
This team became known as the "Ye-yé". The name "Ye-yé" came from the "Yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus in the
Beatles' song "
She Loves You" after four members of the team posed for
Diario Marca dressed in Beatles wigs. The Ye-yé generation was also European Cup runner-up in
1962 and
1964.
In the 1970s, Real Madrid won 5 league championships and 3 Spanish Cups.
The club played its first UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1971 and lost to English side Chelsea 2–1.
On 2 July 1978, club president Santiago Bernabéu died while the
World Cup was being played in
Argentina. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) decreed three days of mourning to honour him during the tournament.
The following year, the club organized the first edition of the
Santiago Bernabéu Trophy in the memory of its former president.
Quinta del Buitre and seventh European Cup (1980s–2000)
By the early 1980s, Real Madrid had lost its grasp on the
La Liga title until a new batch of home-grown stars brought
domestic success back to the club.
Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias gave to this generation the name
La Quinta del Buitre ("Vulture's Cohort"), which was derived from the nickname given to one of its members,
Emilio Butragueño. The other four members were
Manuel Sanchís,
Martín Vázquez,
Míchel and
Miguel Pardeza.
With
La Quinta del Buitre (reduced to four members when Pardeza left the club for
Zaragoza in 1986) and notable players like goalkeeper
Francisco Buyo, right-back Miguel Porlán
Chendo and
Mexican striker
Hugo Sánchez, Real Madrid had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe during the second half of the 1980s, winning two UEFA Cups, five
Spanish championships in a row, one Spanish cup and three
Spanish Super Cups.
In the early 1990s,
La Quinta del Buitre split up after Martín Vázquez, Emilio Butragueño and Míchel left the club.
In 1996, President
Lorenzo Sanz appointed
Fabio Capello as coach. Although his tenure lasted only one season, Real Madrid was proclaimed league champion and players like
Roberto Carlos,
Predrag Mijatović,
Davor Šuker and
Clarence Seedorf arrived at the club to strengthen a squad that already boasted the likes of
Raúl,
Fernando Hierro,
Iván Zamorano, and
Fernando Redondo. As a result, Real Madrid (with the addition of
Fernando Morientes in 1997) finally ended its 32-year wait for its seventh European Cup. In 1998, under manager
Jupp Heynckes, The Whites defeated Juventus 1–0 in the final thanks to a goal from
Predrag Mijatović.
Los Galácticos, Calderón and second Pérez era (2000–present)
In July 2000,
Florentino Pérez was elected club president.
He vowed in his campaign to erase the club's debt and modernize the club's facilities. However, the primary electoral promise that propelled Pérez to victory was the signing of
Luís Figo.
The following year, the club got its training ground rezoned and used the money to begin assembling the famous
Galáctico side including players such as
Zinédine Zidane,
Ronaldo,
Luís Figo,
Roberto Carlos,
Raúl and
David Beckham. It is debatable whether the gamble paid off, as despite a European Cup win in 2002, followed by the League in 2003, the club failed to win a major trophy for the next three seasons.
Ramón Calderón was elected as club president on 2 July 2006 and subsequently appointed Fabio Capello as the new coach and
Predrag Mijatović as the new sporting director. Real Madrid won the
La Liga title in 2007 for the first time in four years but Capello was sacked.
In the
2007–08 season, The Whites won the domestic league for the
31st time, achieving their first consecutive league title in eighteen years.
On 1 June 2009, Florentino Pérez regained Real Madrid's presidency.
Pérez continued with the
Galácticos policy pursued in his first term, buying
Kaká from
A.C. Milan then purchasing
Cristiano Ronaldo from
Manchester United for a record breaking £80 million.
