Real Madrid: Part One

Madrid Foot Ball Club was founded on March 6, 1902 as a result of a split within Club Español de Madrid, itself created by the breakup of an earlier club, Football Sky. The original club colors (white shirts, white shorts, navy socks) where chosen in honor of the pioneering English club Corinthians. During this first year the club was instrumental in the creation of a tournament to honor the coronation of King Alfonso XIII - the Copa del Rey, Spain’s first national championship. The club would have to wait three years before first lifting that trophy (a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao) though they then proceeded to rattle off four consecutive titles.

The year before that first cup triumph, Madrid Foot Ball Club merged with three of the city’s other clubs – Moderno, Amicale and Moncloa. In 1912 the club’s first formal ground was inaugurated, the Campo O’Donnell. 1912 also marked the first team debut of the person who, more than any other, would shape the club’s destiny – Santiago Bernabéu. Eight years later the patronage of King Alfonso XIII was sought and achieved and the club’s name was changed to Real Madrid Football Club.

The Twenties were a largely barren period for the club. In fact from the 1917 Copa del Rey to the 1932 Spanish League not a single major trophy was won. But the decade did bring the construction of their first important stadium, the Chamartín, based in the neighborhood of the same name. The decade that followed was of course the most disastrous in modern Spanish history, centering around the Civil War which brought football (along with the rest of society) largely to a halt. From 1931 to 1941 the club changed its name to Madrid Club de Fútbol, a reflection of the Republican and anti-monarchical political trends of the day.

The end of the war brought a return to “normalcy” and the rise to power of Francisco Franco. The club was forever after associated with Franco, with conservative politics and with the Spanish Castilian center in opposition to to pull of the regions, Catalunya (and arch-enemy FC Barcelona) in particular. The club’s emblem remains a reflection of that – the crown symbolic of the royal patronage, the diagonal blue stripe over white of Castille.

In 1941, the club reverted to its previous Real Madrid name (though keeping the Spanish Club de Fútbol aspect). Two other important changes came in the Forties – the election to the presidency of Santiago Bernabéu and the construction of a new stadium which would later bear his name. It was largely through his relentless fund-raising that the stadium was built and at its 1947 opening was widely regarded as the best in the world. Within a few short years the club would have a team worthy of similar plaudits.