Atlético Madrid is a leading Spanish professional soccer club. Soccer is known as football in much of the world. The team, officially called the Club Atlético de Madrid (Athletic Club of Madrid), is most often called Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético. The club competes in La Liga (The League), Spain’s top soccer league. The team plays its home games at Cívitas Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, the capital and largest city of Spain.
Atlético Madrid was founded as Athletic Club de Madrid in 1903 as a branch club of Athletic Bilbao, an existing professional team in north-central Spain. Athletic Madrid became an independent club by the early 1920’s, and in 1928, was among the first members of the newly established La Liga. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) disrupted sports and most other aspects of life throughout Spain. After the conflict, Athletic merged with a team of former air force members to become Athletic Aviación (Aviation) de Madrid. The club won the restarted La Liga in 1940 and again in 1941. Also in 1941, the Spanish government banned teams from using non-Spanish names. Athletic then became Atlético. In 1947, Aviación was dropped from the club name.
Atlético won La Liga again in 1950 and 1951, but the club fell behind its crosstown archrivals, Real Madrid, a team that has dominated Spanish and European soccer since the late 1950’s. Atlético bounced back to defeat Real in the final of Spain’s premier annual soccer tournament, known today as the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup), in 1960 and 1961. Atlético then won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a former tournament among Europe’s domestic league champions, in 1962. Atlético went on to win La Liga in 1966, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1996, 2014, and 2021. The club won the Copa del Rey again in 1965, 1972, 1976, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1996, and 2013.
Atlético has fielded a number of star players over its long history, including Argentine forward José Eulogio Gárate and such Spanish players as midfielders Luis Aragonés and Adelardo Rodríguez, forwards Enrique Collar and Adrián Escudero, and defenders Carlos Aguilera and Isacio Calleja. More recent stars have included Spanish forward Fernando Torres, Colombian forward Radamel Falcao, Uruguayan forward Diego Forlán, French forward Antoine Griezmann, and Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak. For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials).
