Football

Atlético Madrid

Founded as a Basque club's Madrid branch, and built for a quarter of a century around one manager.

City

Madrid

Country

Spain

Latest news

A Real Madrid player in white, wearing number 10, shields the ball from an Atlético Madrid player in red and white stripes, while a second Atlético player closes in behind, in front of a packed crowd.

Preview

Atlético get Julián Álvarez back. Real Madrid arrive two points ahead, with the same three still missing

Two points separate Real Madrid and Atlético before Sunday's derby at the Metropolitano, where Julián Álvarez is back in training for the hosts and Mendy, Militão and Rodrygo are still working apart for the visitors.

Martin Lozanoski

September 19, 2026

About the team

Atlético were founded in 1903 by Basque students in Madrid as a branch of Athletic Bilbao, which is why the two clubs still play in the same red and white stripes. They became fully independent in 1921 and have spent most of their history as the third force in a league that two other clubs have defined.

Eleven league titles put them third in Spain behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. The two most recent, in 2014 and 2021, both came under Diego Simeone, who has been in charge since December 2011 and is by a distance the longest-serving manager at any major European club. Three Europa League wins sit alongside two Champions League finals lost to Real Madrid, in 2014 and 2016, which is its own kind of club history.

They left the Vicente Calderón in 2017 for the Metropolitano in the east of the city, a larger ground that reset the club's matchday income. Enrique Cerezo is president.

For Arena Bulletin, Atlético are the third club in our La Liga coverage behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, and usually the one whose results decide what the title race actually looks like.