Real Madrid CF - a brief history

The start of the clubs success really came under the Franco regime – he saw the club as an excellent propaganda vehicle and poured resource into the club to try to make them a dominating force in Spain and beyond. It is from this point that one of the greatest rivalries in football was born with Catalan club Barcelona. The suppression of the Catalan language and culture by Franco's regime immediately put Barcelona in opposition to Madrid, the team who seemed to represent the dictator's regime and some unsavoury match fixing incidents further soured relationships and made the rivalry all the more fierce.

Probably Madrid's finest period came between 1955 and 1960 when they won an unprecedented five European Cup's in a row. This really put the club on the map as a dominant force in Europe and no club has matched the feat since. Probably the finest display came in the 1960 final where they demolished their German opposition, Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3. Real have since gone on to win the trophy four more times and this total of 9 is better than any other team. Amongst Real Madrid's domestic honours are a massive 29 league titles and 17 Spanish cup triumphs, equally unrivalled by any team in Spain.

In recent years Madrid have been extremely successful also, famed for the having the resource to buy the most high profile signings, it has seemed like no price tag is too big for Real Madrid. In 2000 they brought in Luis Figo from rivals Barcelona for €60million, the following year saw French wonder Zinedine Zidane arrive from Juventus for a world record fee of €71million. Further high profile signings were made in 2002 and 2003 when Ronaldo and England captain David Beckham were brought in by the club to further strengthen the squad of stars. This policy of buying the best players has earned Real Madrid the new nickname of "Los Galacticos".

The last few seasons however has seen a minor downturn for the fortunes of the club – three seasons since their last league victory and four since their last European triumph are not going to please many fans of the club. Huge pressure is put on the manager and the last couple of years has seen a fairly quick turnover of staff; this isn't a club that is used to losing so when the results don't come it is usually the manager who catches the bullet. Last season they saw the title go to rivals Barcelona and their European run came to an end against Juventus in the quarter finals – results that aren't acceptable at the Bernebéu and they'll be looking to improve on them this season and bring home some silverware.
 
 
About the Author
Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a travel writer and marketeer. He is currenlty working to provide additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an excellent presence in Spain and Latin America.

This work is covered by a creative commons licence

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11582.html
 

If you wish to add the above article to your website or newsletters then please include the "Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11582.html" as shown above and make it hyperlinked.

Some other articles by Mike McDougall

Christmas in Spain Rather refreshingly, Spain doesn't seem to start gearing up for Christmas until they get into the month of December. It's not ... Spain - Europe's new culinary hotbed There are exciting times ahead for Spanish cuisine. An extremely good crop of young, ground breaking chefs are placing Spain firmly on the culinary map, even eclipsing their old neighbours to the ... Semana Santa - Malaga The Holy Week (Semana Santa) processions are the largest religious festival in the catholic world and take place from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday with the processions occurring on five days out of the ... Sherry - a wine of tradition A fortified wine from Andalusia produced only in and around the town of Jerez in the Cadiz region. The Spanish producers have since registered the Sherry / Jerez / Xeres name and will prosecute ... Diego Velasquez Diego Velasquez is one of Spain's most celebrated and influential painters, born in 1599 he rose to become the leading artist in the royal court of Phillip IV. Velasquez came along during the ... The Alhambra - Grenada The Alhambra is touted by many as being the best preserved example of a Moorish palace in Europe. Located in the Andalusian city of Grenada the ancient fortress is undoubtedly the city's most famous site. ...