Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkluβ aˈtletiko ðe maˈðɾið]; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to in English as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético and colloquially as Atleti, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home games at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, which has a capacity of 70,692.
Founded on 26 April 1903 as Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid (a branch of Bilbao-based Athletic Club), the entity merged with Club Aviación Nacional in 1939, becoming Atlético de Madrid in 1946. After 1987, Jesús Gil oversaw the transformation from sports club to sociedad anónima deportiva (S.A.D.), underpinning his family's control over the shareholding structure through misappropriation. The club's traditional kits consist of red and white vertical striped shirts and blue shorts. Followers are nicknamed as colchoneros ('mattress makers'), indios ('Indians') and rojiblancos ('redwhites'). Prince Felipe, later King Felipe VI, has been the honorary president of the club since 2003.
Atlético are one of the most successful Spanish clubs, having won 11 La Liga titles, including a league and cup double in 1996. Further domestic trophies include 10 Copa del Rey titles, two Supercopas de España, one Copa Presidente FEF and one Copa Eva Duarte. They have also won numerous titles in Europe, including the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962, the UEFA Europa League in 2010, 2012 and 2018, and the UEFA Super Cup in 2010, 2012 and 2018, in addition to the 1974 Intercontinental Cup. In the UEFA Champions League, Atlético reached the final in 1974, 2014 and 2016. They sustain a standing rivalry with Madrid neighbours Real Madrid, with whom they contest the Madrid derby.
Foundation and first years (1903–1939)
The club was founded on 26 April 1903 as Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid by three Basque students living in Madrid. These founders saw the new club as a youth branch of their childhood team, Athletic Bilbao who they had just seen win the 1903 Copa del Rey Final in the city. In 1904, they were joined by dissident members of Real Madrid. They began playing in blue and white halved shirts, the then colours of Athletic Bilbao. Bilbao had switched to their current red and white stripes by 1910, whereas the Madrid team only adopted their now traditional red and white striped shirts in 1911. Some believe the change came about because red and white striped tops were the cheapest to make, as the same combination was used to make ticking for mattresses, and the unused cloth was easily converted into football shirts. This contributed to the club's nickname, Los Colchoneros.
However, another explanation is that both Athletic Bilbao and Athletic Madrid used to buy Blackburn Rovers' blue and white kits in England. In late 1909, Juan Elorduy, a former player and member of the board of Athletic Madrid, went to England to buy kits for both teams but failed to find Blackburn kits to purchase; he instead bought the red and white shirts of Southampton (the club from the port city which was his embarkation point back to Spain). An investigation in 2023 proposed an alternative kit origin location as Sunderland, whose team also wore those colours. Athletic Madrid adopted the red and white shirt, leading to them being known as Los Rojiblancos, but opted to keep their existing blue shorts whereas the Bilbao team switched to new black shorts. Athletic Bilbao won the 1911 Copa del Rey Final using several 'borrowed' players from Athletic Madrid, including Manolón who scored one of their goals.
Athletic's first ground, the Ronda de Vallecas, was in the eponymous working-class area on the south side of the city. In 1919, the Compañía Urbanizadora Metropolitana—the company that ran the underground communication system in Madrid—acquired some land, near the Ciudad Universitaria. In 1921, Athletic Madrid became independent of parent-club Athletic Bilbao and moved into a 35,800-seater stadium built by the company, the Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid.
During the 1920s, Athletic won the Campeonato del Centro three times and were Copa del Rey runners-up in 1921, where they faced parent club Athletic Bilbao, as they would again in 1926. Based on these successes, in 1928 they were invited to join the Primera División of the inaugural La Liga played the following year. During their debut La Liga campaign, the club was managed by Fred Pentland, but after two seasons they were relegated to Segunda División. They briefly returned to La Liga in 1934 but were relegated again in 1936 after Josep Samitier took over in mid-season from Pentland. The Spanish Civil War gave Los Colchoneros a reprieve, as Real Oviedo was unable to play due to the destruction of their stadium during the bombings. Thus, both La Liga and Athletic's relegation were postponed, the latter by winning a playoff against Osasuna, champion of the Segunda División tournament.
Athletic Aviación de Madrid (1939–1947)
By 1939, when La Liga had resumed, Athletic had merged with Aviación Nacional of Zaragoza to become Athletic Aviación de Madrid. Aviación Nacional had been founded in 1937 by three aviation officers of the Spanish Air Force. They had been promised a place in the Primera División for the 1939–40 season, only to be denied by the RFEF, and since they did not want to go through the whole divisional climb up, this club merged with Athletic, whose squad had lost eight players during the Civil War, including the team's star, Monchín Triana, who was shot dead. At that time, Real Oviedo also had its field destroyed by the war, so it was decided to give up its place to another team, and that finals spot was contested by Aviación and Osasuna, in a match in Valencia on 26 November 1939, which Aviación won 3–1. With the legendary Ricardo Zamora as manager, the club subsequently won their first La Liga title that season and retained the titles in 1941. The most influential and charismatic player of these years was the captain Germán Gómez, who was signed from Racing Santander in 1939. He played eight consecutive seasons for the Rojiblancos until the 1947–48 campaign. From his central midfield position, he formed a legendary midfield alongside Machín and Ramón Gabilondo.
In mid-1940, a decree issued by Francisco Franco banned teams from using foreign names and the club became Atlético Aviación de Madrid. In September 1940, Atlético Aviación won the first Super cup in Spanish football after beating RCD Español, the 1940 Copa del Generalísimo winners, in a two-legged game that ended in a 10–4 aggregate victory, including a 7–1 trashing in the second leg at Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas. On 14 December 1946, the club decided to drop the military association from its name, and shortly after, on 6 January, it settled on its current name of Club Atlético de Madrid. Also in 1947, Atlético beat Real Madrid 5–0 at the Metropolitano, their biggest win over their cross-town rivals to date.
Under Helenio Herrera and with the help of Larbi Benbarek, Atlético won La Liga again in 1950 and 1951. With the departure of Herrera in 1953, the club began to slip behind Real Madrid and Barcelona and for the remainder of the 1950s were left to battle it out with Athletic Bilbao for the title of third team in Spain.
However, during the 1960s and 1970s, Atlético Madrid seriously challenged Barcelona for the position of second team. The 1957–58 season saw Ferdinand Daučík take charge of Atlético, where he led them to second place in La Liga. This resulted in Atlético qualifying for the 1958–59 European Cup since the winners, Real Madrid, were the reigning European champions. Inspired by Brazilian centre-forward Vavá and Enrique Collar, Atlético reached the semi-finals after beating Drumcondra, CSKA Sofia and Schalke 04. In the semi-finals, they met Real Madrid, who won the first leg 2–1 at the Santiago Bernabéu while Atlético won 1–0 at the Metropolitano. The tie went to a replay and Real won 2–1 in Zaragoza.