An impressive article on Atletico Madrid in the guardian and it's just like reading about us, here's some of the same stuff that unites both us and Atletico.
Ask a Real Madrid fan to explain his loyalty and the answer is as easy as it is long: for Di Stéfano and Raúl, Sánchez and Puskas, Zidane and Butragueño, the two Ronaldos, for the 31 league titles and nine European Cups. The glory.
Ask Atlético Madrid fans and the answer is different – especially over the last decade. It is inexplicable, intangible. It is about sentiment, commitment, passion. "Atlético fans are prisoners of a feeling, of their colours," says Fernando Torres, the former captain who returns to his boyhood club with Liverpool this week. "Madrid's fans are prisoners of results and if results don't follow, nor do the fans."
Replace "Trophies tell the whole story, defining the holder." with "The Thearte of Dreams"
Until they moved it to a different part of the stadium, the entrance to Real's museum used to boast a sign that said: "Trophies tell the whole story, defining the holder." Real were simply: "The Greatest Club of All Time." Atlético's museum has a necessarily more plebeian approach, while – forget players and trophies – the club shop's best-selling T-shirt is splashed with the slogan: Bendita afición. Blessed fans.
Think of our year in Division Two and the crowds we got
There is a certain mythology about it, but the image pervades, deliberately embraced and projected. The scene in the car has become the most famous expression of Atlético, an illustration of unfathomable fidelity. It comes from an advert made in 2001. Atlético had been relegated from the first division for the first time at the end of 1999-2000. The club's owner, Jesús Gil, declared it "one little year in hell" but Atlético were already into a second season. Yet season-ticket sales increased to over 40,000, the 55,000-capacity Vicente Calderón stadium packing out weekly.
Excatly the same thing we say
Would it have happened at the other end of town? "No way," Torres says. "The Bernabéu is like a theatre. They don't feel their football. Atlético is different, special." Anyone who has witnessed the Vicente Calderón as a spine-tingling roar of Atleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeti takes hold can vouch for that and Atlético fans revel in it. As one says simply:
Excatly the same thing we say - City til i die!
Atlético hasta la muerte; Madrid hasta la próxima derrota. Atlético until I die, Madrid until the next defeat
"When you talk Atleti's defining values, the recurring words are passion, authenticity, realness. Arrogance just doesn't fit," he says. "People identified instantly with the advert; it summed up their feelings. Some sympathise more with Wile E Coyote than Road Runner – who always wins by cheating."
Similarities with past glories and to suffer the agony of relegation and not beating them for a long time!
It is too easy to forget that Atlético won the double in 1996. Or that they are historically the country's third-biggest club, with nine league titles. That, having been fused with the air-force team and been rebranded Atlético Aviación at the end of the Spanish civil war, they won the league in 1940 and 1941; that, now plain Atlético Madrid in 1947, they won two more leagues at the start of the 1950s, and four trophies in the 1960s – including back-to-back Copa del Generalísimo successes against Real. To forget them beating Real in the 1992 cup final, after Luis Aragonés's team-talk: "Forget tactics," he screamed. "It's Real Madrid at the Bernabéu. They've been sticking it up our arses for so long, now it's our chance to stick it up theirs!"
It is easy to forget that in the 1970s Atlético won three league titles, two cups and the World Club Cup. And it is easy because losing the 1974 European Cup final was more painful and, ultimately, more memorable, because of the way that defeat has been clutched to their hearts. It has been easy, too, because of Real's extraordinary success and because since 1996 Atlético have been relegated and won nothing. Since Atlético's demotion in 2000 more than 60 teams have beaten Real, but the club in red and white are not one of them. Not even once. The city derby has become Atlético's own private Groundhog Day.
Think "Typical City"
Atlético lost the 1974 European Cup final against Bayern Munich to a freak late goal from 40 yards. The club president, Vicente Calderón, dubbed them El Pupas, the jinxed ones. It has stuck; in recent years it has become even more immovable. A sense of fatalism hangs about. Atlético have made a cult of collapse; defeat is a way of being. There's even a supporters' club called "The Suffering".
Again excatly the same as us.
"Atlético are the only club who presume to lose," says Michael Robinson, the former Liverpool player who now works on Spanish television. "Atlético are a stray dog that has wonderful eyes to stare at you. A dog that will never win Crufts, whereas Madrid won't even partake in Crufts if they don't think they're going to win it. Not winning proves they care more. It's almost a masochism, like an Easter procession, flogging themselves."
As they have said over the years "Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea ect bigger games than us"
Some don't swallow it, Juanma Trueba from the newspaper AS insisting: "Atlético are a romantic myth – Atlético are Humphrey Bogart, Madrid are Cary Grant." Most Madrid fans are dismissive of them but others are irritated at Atlético's willingness to play the martyrs – as if that gives them a moral superiority. The identity survives, though.
I was the only blue in my class at school, we had Creaney, Bradbury and Brown playing for us, they had Cantona, Beckham, Giggs, i was drilled by family members what being a city fan was about.
Torres's commitment to Atlético came from his grandfather, Eulalio, who complained that Fernando's class-mates were all Real fans. "He told me what being an atlético was all about," the Liverpool striker explains. "He didn't tell me about players, but about what it means to wear the Atlético badge, with the bear and the strawberry tree that symbolise the city. About hard work, humility, sacrifice, overcoming adversity, about resistance to Real Madrid, the city's football giants."
What is it now? 20 managers since Fergie took over them?
There is a brewery alongside the Calderón; Atlético couldn't organise the proverbial drinks there. Under Jesús Gil, they ditched the youth system because he did not see the point. Among the first to seek a new home was a 13-year-old by the name of Raúl. Atlético went through 37 coaches in 16 years. Ron Atkinson lasted 94 days and joked that he deserved a testimonial. Gil's successor, Enrique Cerezo, went through eight in seven years. Since 1996, with Gil's son Miguel Angel Gil Marín as chief executive, they have had 18 coaches. Meanwhile, the debt tops €300m (£263m).
I'll end it on this as i could go on and on
"Living in Real's shadow is hard. For years Madrid have been the big, rich team in Spain and we've been the poor team, the working-class club. Atlético belong to the city; Madrid are the world's team."
This great article can be viewed in full here <a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/18/atletico-madrid-liverpool-europa-league" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... opa-league</a>
Even though i dream of Euopean Cups, Premier League titles and trips to Wembley, i don't want it at the price of turning into the rags or Real Madrid, i think i'd give up supporting us if we did.
