Major honours
Founded in 1902, the club received the title "Real" (Royal) from King Alfonso XIII in 1920 and has served as the reference point for European club football ever since. Its identity was forged by Alfredo Di Stéfano's team, which swept the first five European Cups from 1956 to 1960, and revived in the modern era with six more titles across eleven seasons from 2014 to 2024. As of the 2024-25 season, its 15 European Cup/Champions League titles are more than double the total of the next-best club. Its governance is just as distinctive: members (socios) elect the club president, yet Real Madrid has repeatedly recruited the world's most expensive players under its Galácticos policy — a lineage that runs from Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham through to Bellingham and Mbappé today. The Santiago Bernabéu, reopened in 2024, was rebuilt into a year-round venue with a retractable roof and a removable pitch.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
El Clásico against Barcelona, layered with the political rivalry between Madrid and Catalonia since the Spanish Civil War, is the most-watched club fixture in the world. The all-Madrid rivalry with Atlético has produced two Champions League finals, in 2014 and 2016, both won by Real.