How Athletic became Atlético and one of Spain’s greatest clubs gave birth to another
They come face to face on Sunday
If you tune in to watch Atlético Madrid vs Athletic Club on Sunday, you may be left a bit baffled. Why on earth are Atlético not in their traditional home and red and white stripes? Why are Athletic in those colours? The reason is a long-last link which has led to this tribute to the Basque club’s 125th anniversary this year.
For the casual LaLiga fan, it may seem strange that one league has two clubs named Athletic de Bilbao and Atlético de Madrid. But the truth is that one gave birth to the other.
Atletico Madrid were in fact founded with the original name of Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid (‘Athletic Club Madrid Branch’) by a group of three Basque students who had moved from Bilbao to Madrid to study. They were already big fans of the football team that was founded on the north coast in 1898.
After the 1903 Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid, then known as Madrid CF, they decided that the capital city needed two teams and Los Blancos needed a rival. After all, Athletic vs Madrid has since become known as El Viejo Clásico. A year later, they grew significantly as they were joined by members who had been part of Madrid CF but were unhappy with the leadership from the Padrós brothers, Juan and Carlos, who both held the presidency.
The name stuck, and for a period Atlético were treated almost as an affiliate of the Basque side. Both teams wore red and white stripes, with various stories behind the reasoning why.
Some claim that excess material from mattresses was used, at the time always featuring red and white stripes in Spain, while others point to Athletic Madrid board member Juanito Elorduy, who would travel via the port of Bilbao to bring back spare kit from visits to English club Blackburn Rovers but found that Blackburn had no kits left on a visit in 1911, so stopped in Southampton on his way back to Spain.
In 1921, the Madrid-based club split apart to develop its own club with its own infrastructure and organisation as it become more professional. Only seven years later, both were founding members of LaLiga.
Like with much of Spain, the Civil War between 1936 and 1939, broke the relationship for good. The Madrid club was led by factions on the side of Franco and his dictatorship, changing the name accordingly to Athletic Aviación de Madrid to reflect the Air Force after joining with their official football team.
In 1941, Franco implemented a rule that all clubs must have fully Spanish names and so both teams in Bilbao and Madrid transitioned to Atlético. While the Basque side, whose political links were wildly contrasting, would revert back to Athletic in 1977 after Franco’s passing and a return to democracy, Atlético would stick with the Castilian version of their name.
Today, any link between the clubs exists purely in history and shirt colours alone. There is no relationship between the two as it once existed. If anything, there’s a heightened sense of rivalry between the two.
One of the highlights came in 2012, when Atlético were starting a glorious era under Diego Simeone while Athletic were coming to the end of one of the best periods in their history under Marcelo Bielsa. In a thrilling Europa League final, Falcao’s first-half brace put the side from the capital ahead in what would end with a 3-0 victory.
Even now, there are distinct differences and clear similarities between the two clubs. They continue to challenge the status quo of Spanish football, having fallen from the perch that Athletic had at the start of the 20th century but remaining competitive throughout the past 145 years. What is undeniable is that these two historic clubs will be intrinsically linked for eternity.