Foundation and first years (1903–1939) The club was founded on 26 April 1903 as
Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid by three
Basque students living in
Madrid. These founders saw the new club as a youth branch of their childhood team,
Athletic Bilbao They began playing in blue and white halved shirts, the then colours of Athletic Bilbao, but by 1910, both the Bilbao and Madrid teams were playing in their current colours of red and white stripes. Some believe the change came about because red and white striped tops were the cheapest to make, as the same combination was used to make
ticking for
mattresses, and the unused cloth was easily converted into football shirts. This contributed to the club's nickname,
Los Colchoneros. However, another explanation is that both Athletic Bilbao and Athletic Madrid used to buy
Blackburn Rovers' blue and white kits in England. In late 1909,
Juan Elorduy, a former player and member of the board of Athletic Madrid, went to England to buy kits for both teams but failed to find Blackburn kits to purchase; he instead bought the red and white shirts of
Southampton (the club from the
port city which was his embarkation point back to Spain). An investigation in 2023 proposed an alternative kit origin location as
Sunderland, whose team also wore those colours. Athletic Madrid adopted the red and white shirt, leading to them being known as
Los Rojiblancos, but opted to keep their existing blue shorts whereas the Bilbao team switched to new black shorts. Athletic Bilbao won the
1911 Copa del Rey Final using several 'borrowed' players from Athletic Madrid, including who scored one of their goals. Athletic's first ground, the Ronda de
Vallecas, was in the eponymous working-class area on the south side of the city. In 1919, the Compañía Urbanizadora Metropolitana—the company that ran the underground communication system in Madrid—acquired some land, near the
Ciudad Universitaria. In 1921, Athletic Madrid became independent of parent-club Athletic Bilbao and moved into a 35,800-seater stadium built by the company, the
Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid. During the 1920s, Athletic won the
Campeonato del Centro three times and were runners-up in 1921, where they faced parent club Athletic Bilbao, as they would again in 1926. Based on these successes, in 1928 they were invited to join the Primera División of the inaugural
La Liga played the following year. During their debut La Liga campaign, the club was managed by
Fred Pentland, but after two seasons they were relegated to
Segunda División. They briefly returned to La Liga in 1934 but were relegated again in 1936 after
Josep Samitier took over in mid-season from Pentland. The
Spanish Civil War gave
Los Colchoneros a reprieve, as
Real Oviedo was unable to play due to the destruction of their stadium during the bombings. Thus, both La Liga and Athletic's relegation were postponed, the latter by winning a playoff against
Osasuna, champion of the Segunda División tournament.
Athletic Aviación de Madrid (1939–1947) By 1939, when La Liga had resumed, Athletic had merged with
Aviación Nacional of
Zaragoza to become
Athletic Aviación de Madrid. Aviación Nacional had been founded in 1937 by three aviation officers of the
Spanish Air Force. They had been promised a place in the Primera División for the 1939–40 season, only to be denied by the
RFEF, and since they did not want to go through the whole divisional climb up, this club merged with Athletic, whose squad had lost eight players during the Civil War, including the team's star,
Monchín Triana, who was shot dead. At that time,
Real Oviedo also had its field destroyed by the war, so it was decided to give up its place to another team, and that finals spot was contested by Aviación and
Osasuna, in a match in
Valencia on 26 November 1939, which Aviación won 3–1. banned teams from using foreign names and the club became
Atlético Aviación de Madrid. In September 1940, Atlético Aviación won the first
Super cup in Spanish football after beating RCD Español, the
1940 Copa del Generalísimo winners, in a two-legged game that ended in a 10–4 aggregate victory, including a 7–1 trashing in the second leg at
Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas. On 14 December 1946, the club decided to drop the military association from its name, and shortly after, on 6 January, it settled on its current name of
Club Atlético de Madrid. Also in 1947, Atlético beat
Real Madrid 5–0 at the
Metropolitano, their biggest win over their cross-town rivals to date.
Golden age (1947–1965) won two league titles as Atlético manager. Under
Helenio Herrera and with the help of
Larbi Benbarek, Atlético won La Liga again in
1950 and
1951. With the departure of Herrera in 1953, the club began to slip behind Real Madrid and
Barcelona and for the remainder of the 1950s were left to battle it out with Athletic Bilbao for the title of third team in Spain. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, Atlético Madrid seriously challenged Barcelona for the position of second team. The
1957–58 season saw
Ferdinand Daučík take charge of Atlético, where he led them to second place in La Liga. This resulted in Atlético qualifying for the
1958–59 European Cup since the winners, Real Madrid, were the reigning European champions. Inspired by Brazilian centre-forward
Vavá and
Enrique Collar, Atlético reached the semi-finals after beating
Drumcondra,
CSKA Sofia and
Schalke 04. In the semi-finals, they met Real Madrid, who won the first leg 2–1 at the
Santiago Bernabéu while Atlético won 1–0 at the
Metropolitano. The tie went to a replay and Real won 2–1 in Zaragoza. Atlético, however, gained their revenge when, led by former Real coach
José Villalonga, they defeated Real in two successive Copa del Rey finals in
1960 and
1961. In 1962, they won the
European Cup Winners' Cup, beating
Fiorentina 3–0 after a replay. This achievement was significant for the club, as the Cup Winners' Cup was the only major European trophy that Real Madrid never won. The following year, the club reached the
1963 finals, but lost to
English side
Tottenham Hotspur 5–1. Enrique Collar, who continued to be an influential player during this era, was now joined by the likes of midfielder
Miguel Jones and midfield playmaker
Adelardo. Atlético's best years coincided with dominant Real Madrid teams. Between 1961 and 1980, Real Madrid dominated La Liga, winning the competition 14 times. During this era, only Atlético offered Real any serious challenge, winning La Liga titles in
1966,
1970,
1973 and
1977 and finishing runners-up in
1961,
1963 and
1965. The club had further success winning the Copa del Rey on three occasions in
1965,
1972 and
1976. In 1965, when they finished as
La Liga runners-up to Real after an intense battle for the titles, Atlético became the first team to beat Real at the Bernabéu in eight years.
European Cup finalists (1965–1974) and
Javier Irureta proved important attacking pieces of the squad that took Atlético to the
1974 European Cup final In 1966, Atlético left the
Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid (which was demolished and was replaced with university buildings and an office block belonging to the company ENUSA) and moved to a new home in the
Manzanares river waterfront, the
Vicente Calderón Stadium, which was inaugurated on 2 October 1966 with a fixture against Valencia. Significant players from this era included the now-veteran Adelardo and regular goalscorers
Luis Aragonés,
Javier Irureta and
José Eulogio Gárate, the latter winning the
Pichichi three times in 1969, 1970 and 1971. In the 1970s, Atlético also recruited several
Argentine players, signing
Rubén Ayala,
Panadero Díaz and
Ramón "Cacho" Heredia as well as coach
Juan Carlos Lorenzo. Lorenzo believed in discipline, caution and disrupting the opponents' game, and although controversial, his methods proved successful—after winning La Liga in
1973, the club reached the
1974 European Cup Final. On the way to the Final, Atlético knocked out
Galatasaray,
Dinamo București,
Red Star Belgrade and
Celtic. In the away leg of the semi-finals against Celtic, Atlético had Ayala, Díaz and substitute Quique all sent off during a hard-fought encounter in what was reported as one of the worst cases of cynical fouling the tournament has seen. Because of this approach, they managed a 0–0 draw, followed by a 2–0 victory in the return leg with goals from Gárate and Adelardo. The finals at
Heysel Stadium, however, was a loss for Atlético. Against a
Bayern Munich team that included
Franz Beckenbauer,
Sepp Maier,
Paul Breitner,
Uli Hoeneß and
Gerd Müller, Atlético played above themselves. Despite missing Ayala, Díaz and Quique through suspension, they went ahead in extra-time with only seven minutes left. Aragonés scored with a superb, curling free-kick that looked like the winner, but in the last minute of the game, Bayern defender
Georg Schwarzenbeck equalized with a stunning 25-yarder that left Atlético goalkeeper
Miguel Reina motionless. In a replay back at Heysel two days later, Bayern won convincingly 4–0, with two goals each from Hoeneß and Müller. and as European Cup runners-up, Atlético were invited instead. Their opponents were
Independiente Aragonés subsequently led the club to further successes in the Copa del Rey in
1976 and La Liga in
1977. During his second spell in charge, Aragonés led the club to a runners-up finish in
La Liga and a winner's medal in the
Copa del Rey, both in 1985. He received considerable help from
Hugo Sánchez, who scored 19 league goals and won the
Pichichi. Sánchez also scored twice in the cup finals as Atlético beat Athletic Bilbao 2–1. Sánchez, however, only remained at the club for one season before his move across the city to Real Madrid. Despite the loss of Sánchez, Aragonés went on to lead the club to success in the
Supercopa de España in
1985 and then guided them to the
European Cup Winners' Cup final in
1986. Atlético, however, lost their third successive European finals, this time 3–0 to
Dynamo Kyiv.
The Transition years (1987–2005) played in Atlético between 1988 and 1993. managed Atlético in three stints during the ownership of
Jesús Gil, winning a league and cup double in 1996. In 1987, controversial politician and businessman
Jesús Gil became club president, running the club (and committing a fraud of misappropriation by seizing 95% of the shares while failing to effectively pay a single
Peseta during the Atlético's forced conversion from fan-owned club to
Sociedad Anónima Deportiva in 1992) until his resignation in May 2003. Atlético had not won La Liga for ten years and were desperate for league success. Right away, Gil spent heavily, bringing in a number of expensive signings, most notably Portuguese winger
Paulo Futre, who had just won the
European Cup with
Porto. All the spending, however, only brought in two consecutive Copa del Rey trophies in
1991 and
1992 as the league titles proved elusive. The closest Atlético came to the La Liga trophy was the
1990–91 season when they finished runners-up by 10 points to
Johan Cruyff's
Barcelona. In the process, Gil developed a ruthless reputation due to the manner in which he ran the club. In pursuit of league success, he hired and fired a number of high-profile head coaches, including
César Luis Menotti,
Ron Atkinson,
Javier Clemente,
Tomislav Ivić,
Francisco Maturana and
Alfio Basile, as well as club legend Luis Aragonés. Gil also closed down Atlético's youth academy in 1992, a move that would prove significant due to 15-year-old academy member
Raúl who, as a result, went across town to later achieve worldwide fame with rivals Real Madrid. The move came as part of the overall Gil-initiated business restructuring of the club; Atlético became a Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, a corporate structure benefiting from a then-recently introduced special legal status under Spanish corporate law, allowing individuals to purchase and trade club shares. In the
1994–95 league campaign, Atlético only avoided relegation via a draw on the last day of the season. This prompted another managerial change along with a wholesale squad clearance during the summer 1995 transfer window. Somewhat unexpectedly, in the following 1995–96 season, newly arrived head coach
Radomir Antić, with a squad including holdovers
Toni,
Roberto Solozábal,
Delfí Geli,
Juan Vizcaíno,
José Luis Caminero,
Diego Simeone and
Kiko, as well as new acquisitions
Milinko Pantić,
Lyuboslav Penev,
Santi Denia and
José Francisco Molina finally delivered the much sought-after league titles as Atlético won the
La Liga/
Copa del Rey double. The club spent two seasons in the Segunda División, narrowly missing out on promotion in
2000–01 season before winning the Segunda División championship in 2002. It was again Aragonés, in his fourth and last spell as manager of Atlético, who brought them back to the Primera División. Aragonés also coached the team during the next season, and gave
Fernando Torres his La Liga debut. Torres came through the academy of the club and was a hot prospect in Spain; in his first season in the league,
2002–03, he scored 13 goals in 29 appearances. In July 2003, soon after his takeover of the club,
Chelsea owner
Roman Abramovich offered £28 million for Torres, which was rejected by Atlético. In the
2003–04 season, Torres continued his success as he scored 19 league goals in 35 appearances, Torres had been at Atlético since the age of 11 and his precocious talent led to him becoming the club's youngest ever captain at the age of just 19.
Torres sale and eventual European success (2006–2011) in February 2007 played at the
Vicente Calderón Stadium.|left In 2006, Atlético signed
Portuguese midfielders
Costinha and
Maniche, as well as
Argentine forward
Sergio Agüero. In July 2007, Torres left the club for
Liverpool for €38 million, while
Luis García signed for the club at the same time in an unrelated transfer. Other additions included Portuguese winger
Simão Sabrosa from
Benfica for €20 million and winger
José Antonio Reyes from
Arsenal for €12 million. In July 2007, the Atlético board reached an agreement with the
City of Madrid to sell the land where their stadium was located and move the club to the City-owned
Olympic Stadium. The stadium changed hands in 2016 and was bought by the club for €30.4 million. Madrid had applied to host the
2016 Olympic Games, losing out to
Rio de Janeiro. The
2007–08 season proved to be the most successful season for the club in the past decade. The team reached the round of 32 in the
UEFA Cup, where they were defeated by
Bolton Wanderers. They also reached the quarter-finals round of the
Copa del Rey, where they were beaten by eventual champions
Valencia. More significantly, the team finished the
league season in fourth place, qualifying for the
UEFA Champions League for the first time since the
1996–97 season. On 3 February 2009,
Javier Aguirre was dismissed from his post as manager after a poor start to the season, going without a win in six games. He later claimed that this was not accurate, and that he had left by mutual termination rather than through sacking. There was public outrage after his dismissal, many believing he was not the cause of Atlético's problems, namely player Diego Forlán. He backed his former manager and said that, "Dismissing Javier was the easy way out, but he was not the cause of our problems. The players are to blame because we have not been playing well and we have been committing a lot of errors." This led to the appointment of
Abel Resino as Atlético's new manager. Atlético's success continued in the latter half of the season when they placed fourth once again in the league table, securing a position in the playoff round of the UEFA Champions League. Striker Diego Forlán was crowned with the
Pichichi and also won the European Golden Shoe after scoring 32 goals for Atlético that season. Atlético saw this domestic success as an opportunity to reinforce their squad for the upcoming
Champions League season. They replaced veteran goalkeeper
Leo Franco with
David de Gea from the youth ranks and signed promising youngster
Sergio Asenjo from
Real Valladolid. Atlético also acquired
Real Betis defender and Spanish international
Juanito on a free transfer. Despite pressure from big clubs to sell star players Agüero and Forlán, Atlético remained committed to keeping their strong attacking base in the hopes for a successful new season. (left) and
Diego Forlán (right). Forlán won the
European Golden Shoe in 2009.|250x250px The
2009–10 season, however, began poorly with many defeats and goals conceded. On 21 October, Atlético were hammered 4–0 by
English club
Chelsea in the Champions League group stage. This defeat led Atlético's management to announce that manager Abel Resino had to leave. After failing to sign Danish former footballer
Michael Laudrup, Atlético Madrid announced that the new manager for the rest of the season would be
Quique Sánchez Flores. With the arrival of Sánchez Flores as coach in October 2009, Atlético improved in many of their competition. Atlético continued to lag somewhat in La Liga during the 2009–10 season, finishing in ninth position, but managed to finish third in their
2009–10 UEFA Champions League group stage and subsequently entered the
Europa League in the round of 32. Atlético went on to win the Europa League, beating English teams Liverpool in the semi-finals and eventually
Fulham in the
finals held at
HSH Nordbank Arena in
Hamburg on 12 May 2010. Diego Forlán scored twice, the second being an extra-time winner in the 116th minute, as Atlético won 2–1. It was the first time since the
1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup that Atlético had claimed a European titles. They also reached the
Copa del Rey finals on 19 May 2010, where they faced
Sevilla, but lost 2–0 at the
Camp Nou in
Barcelona. By winning the Europa League, they qualified for the
2010 UEFA Super Cup against
Inter Milan, winner of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League. The match was played at the
Stade Louis II,
Monaco on 27 August 2010. Atlético won 2–0 with goals from José Antonio Reyes and Agüero, making it the club's first win in the
UEFA Super Cup. Atlético had a comparatively disappointing 2010–11 season, finishing only seventh in the League and being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the
Copa del Rey and the group stage of the
Europa League. This ultimately led to the departure of manager Sánchez Flores before the conclusion of the season, who was replaced with ex-Sevilla manager
Gregorio Manzano.
Simeone revolution and revival of Atlético success (2011–2025) has led the club to two
UEFA Champions League finals On 23 December 2011, Atlético appointed their former Argentine player,
Diego Simeone, as manager in place of Manzano. The club were in a period of uncertainty, having appointed five managers in less than three years and allowing young talents, namely Agüero and de Gea, to leave for the
Premier League. By winning the Europa League again, Atlético qualified for the
2012 UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, winners of the
previous season's Champions League. The game was played at the Stade Louis II, Monaco on 31 August 2012; Atlético won 4–1, including a
hat-trick by Falcao in the first half. On 17 May 2013, Atlético beat Real Madrid 2–1 in the
Copa del Rey final in a tense match where both teams finished with ten men. This ended a 14-year and 25-match winless streak in the
Madrid derby. The
2012–13 season saw the club finish with three trophies in a little over a year. On 17 May 2014, a 1–1 draw at the
Camp Nou against
Barcelona secured the La Liga title for Atlético, their first since 1996, and the first titles since
2003–04 not won by Barcelona or Real Madrid. One week later, Atlético faced city rivals Real Madrid in their first
Champions League final since 1974, and the first played between two sides from the same city. They took a first-half lead through Godín and led until the third minute of injury time, when
Sergio Ramos headed in an equaliser from a corner; the match went to extra time, and Real ultimately won 4–1. , Atlético's all-time top scorer, with the
UEFA Europa League trophy in 2018
Antoine Griezmann, who had a standout season in La Liga and featured at the
2014 FIFA World Cup, joined Atlético from
Real Sociedad on 28 July 2014. During his first stint with the club, Griezmann was Atlético's top scorer for five consecutive seasons. The club played their last home game at the
Vicente Calderón Stadium on 21 May 2017, thereby moving to a new home, the refurbished
Wanda Metropolitano in eastern Madrid. In 2018, they won their third
Europa League title in nine years by beating
Marseille 3–0 in the
finals at the
Stade de Lyon in
Lyon, courtesy of a brace from Griezmann and a goal from club captain
Gabi in what would be his last match for the club. Atlético also won another
UEFA Super Cup after beating Real Madrid 4–2 at the outset of the following season at the
Lilleküla Arena in
Tallinn. title win in 2021 On 25 September 2020, Atlético signed
Luis Suárez from Barcelona. One of the world's best strikers, Suárez made a dramatic impact at the club, as he played a pivotal role in their unexpected La Liga title triumph, seven years after the 2013–14 win. On April 16, 2024, the team qualified to the
2025 FIFA Club World Cup for first time in club's history, despite being eliminated in the
2023–24 Champions League, as Barcelona were also eliminated, and Atlético were the higher ranked Spanish club in the UEFA four-year ranking.
Apollo Sports Capital acquisition (2026–present) On 12 March 2026, Atletico Madrid announced that
Apollo Sports Capital had completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the club. ==Recent seasons==