Real Madrid CF

Real Madrid
Full nameReal Madrid Club de Fútbol[1]
Nickname(s)Los Blancos (The Whites)
Los Merengues (The Meringues)
Los Vikingos (The Vikings)[2]
La Casa Blanca (The White House)[3]
Reyes de Europa (Kings of Europe)[4][5]
Madridistas (supporters)[6]
Short nameRMA
Founded6 March 1902 (1902-03-06) (as Madrid Football Club)[7]
GroundEstadio Santiago Bernabéu
Capacity83,186[8]
Coordinates40°27′11.0″N 3°41′18.1″W / 40.453056°N 3.688361°W / 40.453056; -3.688361
PresidentFlorentino Pérez
Head coachXabi Alonso
LeagueLa Liga
2024–25La Liga, 2nd of 20
Websiterealmadrid.com
Third colours
Active departments of
Football B Football C Football U-19
Women's Football Women's Football B Basketball Basketball B
Closed departments of
Handball Rugby Volleyball

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal maˈðɾið ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol] ⓘ), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football.

Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally worn a white home kit. The honorific title 'Real' is Spanish for "Royal" and was bestowed by Alfonso XIII in 1920. Real Madrid have played their home matches in the 78,297-capacity Santiago Bernabéu since 1947. Unlike most European sporting clubs, Real Madrid's members have owned and operated the club throughout its history. The club is one of the most widely supported in the world and the most followed sports club across social media.[9][10] It was estimated to be worth $6.6 billion in 2024, making it the world's most valuable football club.[11] In 2024, it became the first football club to make €1 billion ($1.08bn) in revenue.[12] The Madrid anthem is the "Hala Madrid y nada más".[13]

Real Madrid is one of the most successful football clubs in the world and most successful in Europe. In domestic football, the club has won 71 trophies; a record 36 La Liga titles, 20 Copa del Rey, 13 Supercopa de España, a Copa Eva Duarte and a Copa de la Liga.[14] In International football, Real Madrid have won a record 35 trophies: a record 15 European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, a record six UEFA Super Cups, two UEFA Cups, a joint record two Latin Cups, a record one Iberoamerican Cup, and a record nine World champions titles.[note 1] Madrid has been ranked joint first a record number of times in the IFFHS Club World Ranking.[18] In UEFA, Madrid ranks first in the all-time club ranking.[19][20]

As one of the three founding members of La Liga never relegated from the top division, Real Madrid has many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and El Derbi Madrileño with Atlético Madrid. The club established itself as a major force in Spanish and European football during the 1950s and 60s, winning five consecutive and six overall European Cups. This success was replicated on the domestic front, with Madrid winning 12 league titles in 16 years. This team, which included Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Paco Gento and Raymond Kopa is considered by some in the sport, to be the greatest of all time.[21][22] Real Madrid is known for its Galácticos policy, which involves signing the world's best players, such as Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham to create a superstar team.[23][24] In 2009, Madrid signed Cristiano Ronaldo for a record-breaking £80 million (€94 million) from Manchester United;[25] he became the club's and history's all-time top goal-scorer.[26][27][28][29] In addition to signing star players, Real Madrid develops homegrown talent through its academy, La Fábrica, which has produced notable graduates such as Raúl, Iker Casillas, and Dani Carvajal, and has supplied the highest number of players to Europe's top five leagues.[30]

Real Madrid was recognized as the greatest football club of the 20th century,[31] receiving the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004.[32] Real Madrid has the highest number of participations in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League (55),[19] a tournament in which they hold the records for most wins, draws and goals scored.[33] Real Madrid is the only club to have won three consecutive titles (three-peat) in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League twice, achieving this in 1956-58 and 2016-18, and is the only club to win La Décima.[34] In 2024, they won a record-extending 15th Champions League title (the sixth in eleven seasons), recognized as such by Guinness World Records.[35] Real Madrid is the first club across all Europe's top-five leagues to win 100 trophies in all competitions.[36] As of September 2025, Real Madrid are ranked 1st in UEFA club rankings, and first over 2013–23 coefficient.[37][38]

  1. ^ "Real Madrid". Página web oficial de LALIGA | LALIGA (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Los vikingos arrasan Europa". Ligadecampeones.com. 23 November 1960. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  3. ^ The White House:
  4. ^ "Real Madrid remind the world they are, and always will be, the Kings of Europe". goal.com. 28 May 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Kings of Europe more than ever". marca.com. 27 May 2018. Archived from the original on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  6. ^ "From Handel to Hala Madrid: music of champions". UEFA. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Real Madrid turns 106 (I) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "LaLiga bate record histórico de asistencia a los estadios con más de 15 millones de espectadores". Página web oficial de LALIGA | LALIGA (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  9. ^ Dongfeng Liu, Girish Ramchandani (2012). "The Global Economics of Sport", p. 65, Routledge.
  10. ^ "Clubs with the most followers on social networks – CIES Football Observatory". football-observatory.com. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  11. ^ Ozanian, Mike; Tietelbaum, Justin (23 May 2024). "The World's Most Valuable Soccer Teams 2024". Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  12. ^ "Real Madrid first club in world to report €1bn in revenue". ABC News. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  13. ^ Hala Madrid...y nada más (feat. RedOne), 27 May 2014, archived from the original on 25 March 2023, retrieved 23 June 2023
  14. ^ Traquete, Manuel. "World Football: The 11 Most Successful European Clubs in History". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  15. ^ Press Association Sport (27 October 2017). "Man United retrospectively declared 1999 world club champions by FIFA". ESPN FC. Archived from the original on 2 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ibero-American 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ibero-American 2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ "Former Results". IFFHS (in German). 18 July 2022. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  19. ^ a b "UEFA Champions League statistics 2022–23 handbook – All-time records 1955–2022" (PDF). UEFA. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  20. ^ "Member associations – UEFA rankings – Club coefficients". UEFA. 12 May 2021. Archived from the original on 18 March 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  21. ^ "Real Madrid 1960 – the greatest club side of all time". BBC. 23 May 2011. Archived from the original on 1 March 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  22. ^ "The great European Cup teams: Real Madrid 1955–60". The Guardian. 22 May 2013. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  23. ^ Rai, Guillermo (15 January 2023). "How to manage Los Galacticos. By Vicente del Bosque". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  24. ^ Townsend, Jon (2 April 2020). "Steve McManaman at Real Madrid: The most successful English player to head overseas". These Football Times. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  25. ^ X, Mr. "The Cristiano Ronaldo £80m Transfer from Man United to Madrid Analysed". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  26. ^ Bhargav (8 December 2021). "Ranking the 10 greatest Real Madrid players of all time". sportskeeda.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  27. ^ Ayamga, Emmanuel (8 January 2019). "3 reasons why Cristiano Ronaldo is easily the greatest footballer of all time". sportskeeda.com. Archived from the original on 12 July 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  28. ^ "Karim Benzema betters Raul record but still 81 behind Cristiano Ronaldo on Real Madrid goal chart | Goal.com". goal.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  29. ^ Babalola, Oluwatomiwa (6 July 2021). "Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Messi Top List of Greatest Goal Scorers in International Football". SportsBrief – Sport news. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  30. ^ read, Madrid Universal·2 min (24 June 2025). "La Fabrica ranks ahead of La Masia based on key parameter". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 4 August 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ "The FIFA Club of the Century" (PDF). FIFA. 1 December 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 April 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  32. ^ "FIFA Centennial Orders of Merit". FIFA. 20 May 2004. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  33. ^ UEFA.com. "All-time stats & rankings | UEFA Champions League". UEFA. Archived from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  34. ^ "REAL MADRID C.F. - ERROR". www.realmadrid.com. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  35. ^ "Most wins of the football (soccer) European Cup / Champions League (team)". Guinness World Records. 28 May 2022. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  36. ^ "Centurions! Real Madrid won their 100th trophy with FIFA Club World Cup triumph". ESPN. 13 February 2023. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  37. ^ "UEFA rankings for club competitions". UEFA. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  38. ^ UEFA.com (July 2018). "Ten-year club coefficients | UEFA Coefficients". UEFA. Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.


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