Club Atlético de Madrid or Atletico Madrid is a Spanish soccer club based in Madrid who play in the Primera División of La Liga. The Club was founded on 9 October 1939. A previous club was originally founded on 26 April 1903 as Athletic Club de Madrid by three students living in Madrid. The founders saw the new club as a branch of Athletic Bilbao. In 1904 they were joined by members of Madrid FC. They began playing in blue and white, as did Athletic Bilbao, but by 1911 they were playing in their current colours. In 1921 Athletic Madrid became independent of Athletic Bilbao. During the 1920s Athletic won the Campeonato del Centro three times and in 1921 and 1926 they were Copa del Rey runners-up. Based on this record, they were invited to join the Primera División of the inaugural La Liga in 1928.
The club is one of the most successful in the Spanish League, having won both La Liga and the Copa del Rey on nine occasions, including a double in 1996. They also won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1962 and were European Cup runners-up and Intercontinental Cup winners in 1974.
Their home stadium is the Vicente Calderón Stadium, which currently holds up to 54,851. Originally Atletico played in Blue and White stripes but by 1911 they were playing in Red and White stripes. One reason for this is red and white striped jerseys were the cheapest stripes to make because the same combination was used to make bed mattresses which is one of the club's nicknames, los colchoneros, meaning matress makers. Another reason is that the team used to but their uniforms from Blackburn Rovers, one season, they could not find Blackburn Rovers and bought Southamtpon FC uniforms of Red and White stripes and those colours have stuck ever since. Currently Atletico uniforms are made by Nike and ther current away colours are navy blue.
Here is the archive of all Atletico Madrid soccer jersey articles:
If you are looking for more information on Atletico Madrid check out their website, their wikipeida listing or other sites available on Open Directory.
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