Atletico Madrid is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga where they are currently the champions. The club was founded by a group of 3 Basque students living in Madrid in 1903 as Athletic Club de Madrid. They viewed the club as a youth bracnh of Atletic Bilbao.
Dissident players of Real Madrid joined the group in 1904. Although their current colors are red and white stripes until 1911 they played in a blue white color scheme. In 1921 Athletic Madrid became separated from parent-club Athletic Bilbao.
Starting with the 1960’s the club began seriously challenging Barcelona for the position of second team. Led by former Real coach Jose Villalonga they defeated Real Madrid in two successive Copa del Rey finals in 1960 and 1961. In 1962 they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup after beating Fiorentina. The following year they reached the final but were defeated by Tottenham Hotspur.
The best years of the club unfortunately coincided with dominant Real Madrid teams. Between 1961 and 198 Real dominated La Liga winning the title 14 times. During this era only Atletico Madrid gave Real any serious challenge winning La Liga title 4 times.
The club is currently coached by Diego Simeone who led Atletico to the second Europa League title in the three years since its creation. By winning the Europa League they qualified for the UEFA Super Cup, which they won against Chelsea.
As the undefeated winners of their Champions League Group, and later defeating AC Milan, FC Barcelona and Chelsea, Atletico Madrid reached their first UEFA Champions League final since 1974, against Real Madrid in which they were defeated. Atletico did have the consolation of winning La Liga for the first time since 1996.