Real Madrid, commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. It is the most successful club in Spanish football and was voted by FIFA as the most successful football clubof the 20th century, having won a record 31 La Liga titles, 18 Spanish ''Copa del Rey'' Cups, 8 Spanish Super Cups, a record 9 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUES, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 UEFA Supercup, and 3 Intercontinental Cups. Real Madrid was a founding member of FIFA and the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association. The word "Real" in the club's name is the Spanish term for "royal", and was given by the King Alonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem – several other Spanish football teams also received this royal distinction: Real Sociedad, Real Unión de Irún, Real Betis, and Real Zaragoza

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid has never been relegated from La Liga, the top league of Spanish football. The club established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s. In the 1980s, the club had one of the best teams in Spain and Europe, winning two UEFA Cups, five consecutive Spanish championships, one Spanish Cup and three Spanish Super Cups.

The team's traditional home kit colour is white, although it originally adopted a blue oblique stripe on the shirt. Its crest has been changed several times in attempts to modernise or re-brand it. The current crest is a modified version of the one first adopted in the 1920s. Real Madrid's home ground is the 80,354-seater Santiago Bernabéu football stadium in downtown Madrid, where it has played since 1947. The Bernabéu was the venue for the European cup (or UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE) finals of 1957, 1969, 1980 and 2010.

Real Madrid holds long-standing rivalries with other football clubs, most notably FC Barcelona, with matches between the two teams referred to as "el clasico". Unlike most European football clubs, Real Madrid's members (socios) have owned and operated the club since its inception. The club is the world's richest football club in terms of revenue and the second most valuable worth over €950m in 2008.

Historically, the club has had several of the best players of all time, as Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Paco Gento,Butragueño, Hugo Sánchez, Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo, Ronaldo, Raúl González, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham,Wesley Sneijder, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Iker Casillas.