World Football Club Crests

Of late the Atlético Madrid philosophy has been to acquire and improve world-class attackers and then sell them on to Europe’s greatest clubs. Sergio Agüero, Diego Fórlan and Radamel Falcao are just some of the star strikers who have reperesented the red and whites from Madrid over the past few seasons. But it was through another striker, Diego Costa, that Atlético created a stir across Europe by breaking the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga. In the 2013/14 season Atlético won the Spanish league for the first time since 1996 and also reached the Champions League final. And that has so often been the picture with Atlético Madrid: periods of greatness alternating with deep troughs.

In 2012, Diego Simeone’s second season as manager, Atlético reached the top three in La Liga – the first time in 17 years. The period after the league win in 1996 was marked by mid-table mediocrity and also, around the turn of the millennium, by two seasons in the second tier of Spanish football.

In spite of their relatively good successes, Atlético Madrid has nurtured something of a Little Brother complex vis-à-vis their arch-rival Real Madrid. This is a role that the club could be said to have been born to play because it was founded in 1903 by three Basque students who regarded the newly launched Madrid outfit as a branch of their mother club in the Basque Country, Athletic Bilbao. That is also the reason for Atlético Madrid’s colours, emblem and original name. It was not until 1921 that the team became independent from big brother Bilbao.

CLUB: Club Atlético de Madrid

NICKNAMES: Colchoneros (the Mattress-Makers), Rojiblancos (the Red and Whites), Los Indios (the Indians) and Atléti

FOUNDED: 1903

STADIUM: Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid (67,703 capacity)

HISTORIC PLAYERS: Adelardo, Adrián Escudero, Luis Aragonés, Sergio Agüero, Diego Fórlan, Radamel Falcao and Fernando Torres

1903–1911. Atlético Madrid was founded in the image of Athletic Bilbao, so they shared the same emblem in the beginning. The initials stand for Athletic Club and the blue and white colours were inspired by Blackburn Rovers from whom both clubs bought their kit.

1911–1917. During the period that Athletic Club de Madrid and Athletic Bilbao were linked, they changed their emblem at the same time. So when the Basque club changed the colours of their kit and their emblem to a red and white flag, the Madrid club followed suit, even if they chose to keep their blue shorts.

1917–1939. A further change of emblem was carried out in 1917. For the first time in the club’s history, symbols from the Madrid area appeared. The bear and the wild strawberry tree (arbutus unedo in Latin) are taken from the Madrid city crest; these figures had represented the city as early as the 13th century.

1939–1947. After the Spanish Civil War, the team merged with the club of the Spanish air force, forming the Athletic Aviación de Madrid. Wings were added to the crest to symbolise the air force, and a royal crown placed on top. This was the logo with which the club won its first league title in 1940 and a second in 1941, the year they adopted the name Atlético (rather than Athletic) after foreign names were forbidden.

1947–2017. When the air force separated from Atlético Madrid, their flying symbols also disappeared from the crest. Over the years the contours of the emblem have been both yellow and blue. The seven stars are taken from the constellation Ursa Major. The five points of the stars symbolise provinces around Madrid: Segovia, Ávila, Guadalajara, Cuenca and Toledo.

2017–present. Atlético Madrid’s effort to expand as a club prompted the move to the newly built, ultra-modern stadium Wanda Metropolitano, in time for the 2017/18 season. At the same time as the stadium’s name was announced in December 2016, the club’s new emblem was revealed: the colours were changed and the shield rounded in memory of the original emblem, while the bear and the tree were inverted, taking up more space than before. This was all designed to signal a new era in the history of the club. Although the new emblem respects the regional symbols, there has been a lot of criticism from fans, who have even formed protest groups. The emblem was created by the Barcelona-based design group Vasava.

Diego Simeone was an industrious midfielder for Atlético and has since gone on to become a highly influential manager for the club, leading them to a La Liga win in 2014, two Champions League finals and a Europa League victory in 2018.