Real Madrid was rated the best club of the twentieth century and has a history spanning over 100 years, making it one of the world’s most influential sporting institutions.

The club’s history may be summarized in ten seconds.

Foundation and early years

The creation of the Madrid football club took place on March 6, 1902. The club’s laws were ratified there, under the presidency of Juan Padros, and the club played in these early years on several pitches throughout Madrid until the O’Donnell Stadium was created as the club’s home in 1912.

Los Blancos was one of the pioneering teams as sport developed in popularity in Spain, and they were instrumental in the formation of events such as the Copa del Rey, which they won four of the first six editions.

Following Alfonso XIII’s giving of the title of ‘Real’ in 1920, the Estadio Chamartin was inaugurated in 1924, and nothing could stop the club’s momentum.

Presidency of Santiago Bernabeu

Santiago Bernabeu was a player before becoming president, but it was in the director’s box that he made his mark on the club’s history.

He was a visionary who led the club to unprecedented heights. He was elected president in September 1943, and after a sluggish start, his decisions began to bear fruit.

He worked tirelessly to create a competition between Europe’s finest teams, which led in the formation of the European Cup. Los Blancos won the first five rounds and gained widespread acclaim across Europe.

He signed a generation of footballers that would go on to make history in Madrid, including Alfredo Di Stefano, Paco Gento, Ferenc Puskas, and others.

Arrival of Di Stefano

In 1952, Santiago Bernabeu hosted a friendly to mark the club’s 50th anniversary, and he invited Millonarios from Colombia. Alfredo Di Stefano took part in the match, but a conflict erupted between his team and River Plate immediately afterward.

They both claimed ownership of his rights, which allowed Barcelona and Real Madrid to begin negotiations for his signature. He went to Spain with the intention of signing for Barcelona, but ended up joining Los Merengues.

In the Spanish capital, he changed the course of history by becoming one of the club’s best ever players.

The first six European Cups

In the early years of the European Cup, Real Madrid swept across Europe mercilessly, winning the first five editions.

The team of Di Stefano, Gento, Hector Rial, Raymond Kopa, Puskas, Jose Maria Zarraga, Rafael Lesmes, and Jose Santamaria won title after title in the competition, an accomplishment that has yet to be duplicated.

Gento was still present when the club won its sixth continental trophy in 1966, despite a number of tough years as the team was rebuilt.

The Quinta del Buitre

Once they advanced from Castilla to the senior team in the early 1980s, there emerged a generation of footballers who characterized the team.

The group included Michel, Martin Vazquez, Manolo Sanchis, and Miguel Pardeza, and was led by Emilio Butragueno. Quinta del Buitre was given to them by journalist Julio Cesar Iglesias.

These players helped win two UEFA Cups and five consecutive LaLiga crowns in Spain, but they were never able to win the Champions League.

The seventh, eighth and ninth Champions League trophies

Raul Gonzalez emerged with an explosive eye for goal after the Butragueno period ended. In 1998, he was able to accomplish something that the previous generation had failed to do: he won the Champions League.

It ended a 32-year drought for the most coveted European trophy, and Los Merengues soon found their stride again, winning three of the next five editions, with additional victories in Paris in 2000 and Glasgow in 2002.

The Galacticos

Florentino Perez approved David Beckham’s signing in 2003, and Michael Owen followed a year later. These high-profile additions followed the controversial arrivals of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo Nazario, as well as Luis Figo.

Perez put up this band of Galacticos during a period when sports marketing was booming. These signings gave the club a lot of money, but they couldn’t help the team win games.

On many Saturday afternoons, the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu was bathed in sunlight, with people witnessing some of the game’s finest players compete. Despite this, they were unable to qualify for the Champions League, suffering heartbreaking knockout losses in the mid-2000s.

The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo

In 2009, Perez was re-elected president for a second term, and he wanted to make a statement right away. He achieved so by paying a world record 96 million euros for Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.

Real Madrid believed they had recruited the man who could end their European drought after Ronaldo proved himself as the best footballer in the world at the time, guiding United to Champions League glory in 2008.

Ronaldo scored 451 goals in 438 appearances, an average of more than one per game, and he was the iconic figure behind one of the club’s most successful eras.

He equaled Di Stefano’s goalscoring record in Madrid, and his duel with Lionel Messi at the same time was perhaps one of the most enthralling rivalries in sport.

La Decima

Carlo Ancelotti ultimately brought Real Madrid back to the top of European football after years of failure in the Champions League, winning the competition in Lisbon in 2014.

It was a memorable final, made all the more memorable by the fact that it was played against Atletico Madrid, a local rival. Los Blancos had become obsessed with La Decima, spending millions on players who couldn’t quite get them over the line.

The game itself wasn’t really exciting. Diego Godin scored after an awful error by Iker Casillas, and it was only Sergio Ramos’ injury-time equalizer that saved Ancelotti’s side.

Three successive Champions League trophies

Real Madrid reached the Champions League final for the second time in two years, this time in Lisbon. In January 2016, Zinedine Zidane took over as manager, and it was Atletico Madrid who stood in the way of the club’s European triumph.

For fans in Milan, a penalty shoot-out was agonizing to watch, but Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up and netted the game-winning penalty. This was Zidane’s first Champions League title.

Juventus were the club’s opponents in Cardiff in 2017, and the game was far more one-sided, with the Spanish giants prevailing 4-1.

In 2018, Zidane was having a difficult time in Madrid as his club struggled domestically, but his squad managed to reach the Champions League final for the second time.

Los Blancos would win their third straight European title with a win over Liverpool in Kiev, after becoming the first team to win the championship back-to-back since AC Milan in the 1990s.

A horrible Loris Karius error led in Karim Benzema’s goal, before the German goalkeeper parried another Gareth Bale shot into his own net.