The twenty-first century so far, belongs to Barcelona, ​​but it would be easy to refute that Real Madrid, chosen by FIFA as the best football club of the twentieth century, remains perhaps as the most legendary. It is, of course, by the number of titles won, but also for having been instrumental in the creation of the European Cup and a rich past history of 110 years with all kinds of stories, including controversial signings, players who only realized they had been seriously injured in the cold polar former Soviet Union in the middle of a shower after the game, locker room speeches, the famous stage fright that the famous Santiago Bernabeu stadium inspired (sayong coined by Jorge Valdano) the equally famous comeback spirit of European nights and a long etcetera.

Much of this history is unknown to the public, despite the name and image ownership of the club that Franco used for almost forty years of dictatorship, Republican affiliation of the institution in the years before the victory of the  coup in the Spanish Civil War, parentage of which are testimony to this day both the purple stripe of the shield as well as the T-shirt that the team has worn on countless occasions as a guest team

Indeed, in August 1936, on the verge of when Madrid was surrounded, terrified and bombed almost at a  daily rate by the rebel army with military support from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, which used the Spanish war as a testing ground for weapons and military tactics they would use in the Second World War, the majority of members of Real Madrid,  requested the seizure of the club by the Popular Front, the coalition of democratic parties won the elections earlier that year and consequently ruled legally in Spain.

What should not seem strange if we consider not only that the area of ​​the Madrid field, the legendary Chamartín stadium was in a sensible socialist tradition neighborhood but most of its members were left wing Republicans (in fact former president, Rafael Sanchez-Guerra, was a Republican-Socialist candidate for the municipal elections in 1931, who later on became Minister of the republican government in exile in the forties).

For such a rich and contradictory history its  worth visiting the Museum of the Real Madrid (http://www.realmadrid.com/), where photos, glasses, documents, videos, boots and shirts weave the path of the world’s most successful club in the very belly of the impressive Bernabeu stadium, which you may also visit on a very complete tour (including visiting the pitch and the dressing rooms) for the same price.

 

 

 

Paul Oilzum

Probably you never would have imagined that there was a defining time in our history when Real Madrid was the favorite team of the anti-fascists in the world. The city itself is so full of exciting surprises, as you will see for yourself when you rent apartments in Madrid

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Translated by: Marc
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