History of Real Madrid Cf

Martin Torrijos 12th Grade English November 21, 2012 Real Madrid FC Real Madrid Football Club is one of the oldest, most successful clubs in the world. Ever since its inception in 1902, the club has won countless titles, and has been a perennial contender for its entire existence. Many of the sport’s biggest, most notorious legends have worn the pure white uniforms that have become synonymous with the team. With a history of excellence, and a winning tradition that continues to this day, Real Madrid’s already unbelievable legacy looks to become even greater with the passage of time.This incredible club was founded on March 6th 1902 as â€Å"Sociedad de Madrid FC, and its first ever president was Mr. Juan Padros. In one of the first team meetings, the board agreed to the dress team white shirts, with matching shirts and socks, as a tribute to one of his favorite football clubs (Corinthia of London). This decision inadvertently led to the creation of one of football†™s most iconic looks, the pure white Real Madrid home kits. In the very same year that the club was founded, it won its first championship, the â€Å"Campeonato Regional Central† (Central Regional Championship).Two years later, On May 21, 1904; Madrid FC participated in the founding of FIFA (the international federation that, to this day, is still the central governing body of the sport), with the federations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (and their respective top clubs) all present. Decades later, on June 29, 1920; the club received a letter from the King Alfonso XIII of Spain granting them the title of a â€Å"royal†, a distinction that very few Spanish clubs can boast.Not even some of the country’s most successful clubs (Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Atletico de Madrid; for example) share the distinction of being â€Å"royal† clubs. Since then, the club has utilized its present name, Real Madrid Club de Fu tbol. In the same decade that they were declared football royalty, they participated in the inaugural league championship of Spain in 1929, where it finished in second place behind their soon-to-be lifelong rivals F. C. Barcelona. The following season the club began a tradition of spending made many signings, including goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora, for whom they paid 150,000 pesetas to Espanyol.Despite the large investment, Real Madrid had a discrete participation and came nowhere near winning the title. In 1931, with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, Real Madrid was stripped of the title of â€Å"Royal† and renamed to Madrid Football Club again. The club, however, further invested on players and obtained League 1931/32, the first in Madrid, undefeated. The success was repeated in the 1932/33 season, with Brazilian Olivares consecrated as the first big-name scorer of the team.The first era of Real Madrid-style success soon ensued, and the club won three consecuti ve leagues (1933-34, 1934-35 and 1935-36), and were also cup winners in 1934 and 1936 after beating Valencia C. F. and F. C. Barcelona respectively. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War sports activities were suspended from 1936 to 1939. After the end of the political turmoil in Spain, the club regained its title of â€Å"Royal†. The war, however, left Real Madrid without several of their stars, so they decided to hire many players, including Sabino Barinaga, a world class midfielder who arrived from Southampton FC in England.On September 15, 1943 ex-player and former coach Santiago Bernabeu was unanimously named club president, ushering in a prosperous stage of the club’s history. This move allowed Real Madrid get the â€Å"bicampeonato†, winning both the league and domestic cup, in 1946 and1947. The club, however, suffered such poor results during the 1948-49 campaign that league winning coach Quincoces Jacinto, with just one year in office, resigned fro m his post midway through the season.In January 1948 Michael English relieved Quincoces, and managed to save the team from descending into the â€Å"Segunda Division†, the second tier league of Spanish football, which sends its top three teams into the first division while receiving the bottom three from the â€Å"Primera Division†. Although English had stars like the great Pahino at his disposal, the â€Å"Merengues† spent the next few years in mediocrity and finishing mid-table. On March 6, 1952, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its founding, the team hosted an international friendly tournament , where they lost the final ost to Club Deportivo Los Millonarios from Colombia. Despite the loss, the club spotted Argentine player Alfredo di Stefano and hired him from Millonarios in 1953, along and Spaniard Francisco Gento from Racing de Santander. This signing proved to be excellent, as Di Stefano would lead Madrid to an era of absolute success, and is still regarded as one of the top five players to ever play for Madrid. With â€Å"Pahino† Molowny, Di Stefano and Gento, the â€Å"Merengues† got the 1953-54 league title, after a 21 year dry spell. Di Stefano was crowned top scorer of the tournament, a feat that he would repeat four more times in Madrid.Under the direction of Spanish coach Jose Villalonga, and with a team of players like Juan Alonso, â€Å"Marquitos† Rafael Lesmes, Miguel Munoz, Jose Maria Zarraga, â€Å"Joseito† Alfredo di Stefano, Hector Rial and Francisco Gento, Real Madrid conquered 1954-55 and 1956-57 league. They also participated in the first two editions of the European Cup, which they won by beating Stade de Rennes in the French league in the Parc des Princes and ACF Fiorentina of Serie A D’Italia in the Santiago Bernabeu, respectively, in the 1955-56 and 1956-57 editions.Argentina’s Luis Carniglia relieved Villalonga, and, with the additions of Raymond Kopa, Jose Santam aria and Ferenc Puskas; the team won the 1957-58 European Cup, and beat AC Milan and Rennes in the finals of the â€Å"Coup d’Europe† in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Following years of Di Stefano-led success, the club began a new era in 1966. Madrid gave relief to the old idols of Madrid with a team of young Spanish people like Joseph Araquistain, â€Å"Pachin† Pedro de Felipe, Manuel Sanchis , â€Å"Pirri†, Ignacio Zoco Francisco Serena, Amancio Amaro, Ramon Grosso and Manuel Velazquez; and led by the veteran Francisco Gento.The rejuvenated tea won the European Cup, after years of futile performance. In the 1970? s, the now-veteran players won Real Madrid five Leagues and three Domestic Cups. The happy period of the club’s history would soon end. On June 2, 1978 Santiago Bernabeu died during the World Championships in Argentina. Soon after, in September, Luis Carlos became president of Madrid. During the reign of Luis Carlos (1978-1985), the team won 2 Leagues, 2 Cups and one UEFA Cup. In those years he was formed what came to be known as the â€Å"Quinta del Buitre† (The Vulture’s Five): Emilio Butragueno ( nicknamed the Vulture†), Michel, Manuel Sanchis, Rafael Martin Vazquez and Miguel Pardeza were all instrumental to the team’s success. In 1981, Real Madrid was defeated in the final of the Champions League for the first time, against Liverpool FC. La Quinta del Buitre was one of the best generations of home-grown Real Madrid players, starting with their win the Second Division title in 1984 with Real Madrid Castilla, the subsidiary of the Club. That generation won five consecutive league (1986-1990) , a Domestic Cup in 1989 and a second title of the UEFA Cup in 1986.In 1985, Luis Carlos retired from the presidency due to his advanced age and was succeeded by Ramon Mendoza (1985-1995). This new generation was led by Mexican striker Hugo Sanchez, bought from Atletico Madrid. They, like the Quinta del Buitre before them, achieved great success (although not as much as their predecessors). The era of victorious accomplishments was broken in 1991, when F. C. Barcelona (led by legend Johan Cruyff) managed to win four consecutive league titles and one European Cup in 1992. During those years, the Madrid only won a Copa del Rey (Domestic Cup) in 1993.At the end of that dark period, the last remnants of the Quinta del Buitre were dissolved with the departures of Butragueno and Michel Vasquez. However, another big player in history came from the Madrid youth academy, Raul Gonzalez Blanco. Commonly known by his first name only, Rauis believed by many to be the best Madrid homegrown player ever. In 1995, he returned Madrid to its winning ways, winning the league with the help of coach Jorge Valdano and signings new signings Michel Laudrup, Amavisca and Jose Redondo.The joy would prove to be short-lived, as the team failed to win any major titles in the 1995/1996 season, Valdano was f ired because of poor performances and the huge debt accumulated for Real Madrid. Real Madrid finished the season outside the European places, so it did not play in any European competition next season. After a radical restructuring of club, Madrid won the Liga 1996/1997 being directed by Fabio Capello, but he left the club due to their discussions and conflicts with then-president Lorenzo Sanz and was succeeded by Jupp Heynckes.The Madrid team led by Heynckes won the seventh European Cup (which has been renamed Champions League ) in 1998, winning the final against Juventus in Turin by a solitary goal he scored on 66 minutes of the meeting by Predrag Mijatovic, breaking 32 years of drought without winning it, but he was fired due to poor performance league. After a season without a title, Vicente del Bosque came to coach in November 1999, making a debut to promising young goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Del Bosque managed to conquer the Eighth European Cup in 2000 after defeating Valencia CF 3-0 in the final.Shortly after, Florentino Perez was elected president of Real Madrid, with a promise to end the club’s debt. On July 16, 2000 held new presidential elections. Sanz lost his re-election to Florentino Perez, who from this moment became the fourteenth president of Real Madrid. Immediately after, Perez bought Brazilian Flavio Conceicao fro Deportivo La Coruna, Frenchman Claude Makelele from Celta Vigo and Albert Celades of F. C. Barcelona. But no purchase had more impact than that of Portuguese winger Luis Figo, who was bought for 60 million from arch-rivals F.C. Barcelona. This moves started the â€Å"Galacticos† Era. This era was marked by great econoinc spending, and the purchase of many of the world’s biggest stars. Players like Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Figo all ushered Madrid to great heights. In 2001, Madrid won the league again, and Raul was named top scorer. The team won two league titles (2000/2001 and 2002/2003) and the ninth European Cup in 2002 against Bayer Leverkusen thanks to a goal from Zidane right at the end of the first half.After that, the team spent 3 consecutive seasons without a title, one of the worst losing streaks in its history, prompting the resignation of Florentino on February 27, 2006. With Ramon Calderon as the new president, the club won two League titles: (2006/2007 and 2007/2008) and the Spanish SuperCup (2008) with two different coaches (Capello and Schuster), despite failures in the Champions League. In the 2008/2009 season, there was a scandal which forced the resignation of Calderon in January 2009, and he was succeeded by Vicente Boluda.He organized the transition to return to the presidency of Florentino Perez as the only candidate in the 2009 elections. With the return of Florentino Perez for the 2009/2010 season, the club bought Cristiano Ronaldo, had long sought by Calderon, and Kaka, breaking records for the most expensive players in history (C ristiano Ronaldo 96 million euros, Kaka 67. 2 million euros). Also, the club made other expensive such as Karim Benzema (35 million) and Xabi Alonso (34 million euros). As he signed to coach Manuel Pellegrini, Villarreal from the C.F. , thus beginning the Second Age of Galacticos . However, it was not enough and Real Madrid failed to win a title in 2010, despite having added 96 points in the league, a record surpassed only by the 99 champion. The good league season contraste with the early eliminations in the Doestic Cup and Champions League the sixth consecutive time falling eliminated in second round of the continental showpiece. Pellegrini ended up being removed and replaced by Jose Mourinho, who dismissed two emblematic players Raul and Guti.After 18 years of drought, Mourinho managed to win the Copa del Rey. This was the first title in the second stage of Florentino Perez as the first title from Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. The following year, Mourinho led Madrid to a league t itle, while breaking the record for most points (100), and most goals scored in a single season (121). Today, Mourinho is currently sitting at third in La Liga, and Madrid has just qualified for the next stage of both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. The future of this club appears to be just as bright as its illustrious history.