Club Atlético de Madrid, SAD (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkluβ aðˈletiko ðe maˈðɾið]) commonly known as Atlético Madrid, or simply as Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, that plays in La Liga.
In terms of UEFA competition titles won, Atlético Madrid is Spain’s third most successful club behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. In terms of the number of titles, Atlético Madrid is the fourth most successful club in Spanish football, behind Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. Atlético have won La Liga on ten occasions, including a league and cup double in 1996; the Copa del Rey on ten occasions; two Supercopas de España and one Copa Eva Duarte; in Europe, they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1962, were runners-up in 1963 and 1986, were European Cup runners-up in 1974, 2014 and 2016,[2] won the Europa League in 2010 and in 2012, won the UEFA Super Cup in 2010 and 2012, as well as the 1974 Intercontinental Cup.
The club play their home games at the Vicente Calderón,[3] which holds up to 54,960 spectators. In 2017, Atlético are due to move to their new home of Wanda Metropolitano, which will have a capacity of 73,729. Atlético’s home kit is red and white vertical striped shirts, with blue shorts, accompanied by blue and red socks. This combination has been used since 1911.
During their history the club has been known by a number of nicknames, including Los Colchoneros (“The Mattress Makers”), due to their first team stripes being the same colours as old-fashioned mattresses. During the 1970s, they became known as Los Indios, allegedly due to the club signing several South American players after the restrictions on signing foreign players were lifted. However, there are a number of alternative theories which claim they were named so because their stadium is “camped” on the river bank, or because Los Indios (The Indians) were the traditional enemy of Los Blancos (The Whites), which is the nickname of the club’s city rivals, Real Madrid.[4]
Felipe VI, the current king of Spain, has been the honorary president of the club since 2003. The club co-owns the Indian Super League franchise in Kolkata, named Atlético de Kolkata, which won the inaugural season of the competition in 2014 and again in the 3rd season which took place in 2016, being the most successful franchise of that league.