Real Madrid

The ancestor of the soccer team is considered a club of former students and foreign representatives (mostly British) — "Sky Football." The official date of the team — March 6, 1902. The first name was Madrid Football Club.

There were several amateur teams in the capital at that time, and players freely moved from one to another. In 1902, Madrid hosted a tournament in honor of the coronation of Alfonso XIII. Madrid lost 1:3 to Barcelona in the semi-finals and defeated Espanyol in the third-place match. The winner was Athletic. Subsequently, the tournament was called the Copa del Rey, and its first draw is considered the first Cup of Spain in soccer. In the second draw, Madrid lost the final to Athletic. In 1905-1908, the Madrid team won the Cup four times in a row, and in 1909, 14-year-old Santiago Bernabeu began to play for the youth team of Madrid — the future president of the club.

In 1920, King Alfonso XIII allowed adding the title word 'real' to the team's name. It is with this name the club is now known throughout the world. Real were one of the initiators of the national championship. The first Spanish championship was held from February to June 1929, Real Madrid were the runner-up, with Barcelona as champion.

The post-war government liked Atletico Madrid (it was given a new, army-appointed name, Atlético Aviación), which won 3 of the first 4 post-war championships. "Real" in the early and mid-forties played very unstably: 4th, 6th, 2nd, 10th, 7th, 2nd places from 1940 to 1945.

In 1945, Santiago Bernabeu, the man who began a new era in the history of Real Madrid, became president of the club. He began to turn the club into a business structure, which could give big profits and achieve significant sports results.

Real won the championship of 1954/55, which made them the first Spanish delegate in the European Cup. Since then, Real have established themselves at the European top for five years. Successes on the international stage were accompanied by victories in the domestic championship, of which there were 12 between 1954 and 1969. During the fifteen years, if Madrid lost the championship at home, then certainly won the Champions Cup.

In 2000, the ambitious Florentino Perez was elected as the new president of Real Madrid (he replaced Lorenzo Sanz), who decided to gather all the best players on the planet in Real Madrid. Perez began his activity with the purchase of Portuguese Luis Figo from Barcelona for a record 71 million euros. A year later, Zinedine Zidane joined the ranks of Real Madrid, for which they paid Juventus even more — 75 million euros. A year later, Ronaldo arrived from Inter, in summer 2003 — Beckham, in 2004 — Owen. Thus, in the season 2004/05, four players played together, winners of "Golden Ball" of different years: Ronaldo (1997 and 2002), Zidane (1998), Figo (2000), Owen (2001). This collection of stars came to be called "Galácticos."

After a short break, on June 1, 2009, Florentino Perez again became president of Real Madrid and started to create new "Galácticos" (Kaká, Cr. Ronaldo, Benzema, Xabi Alonso, Di Maria, Bale, Modrić and others). This Real, led by Zidane, set an outstanding record, winning the Champions League three times in a row and four times in five years (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018).