A 'Real' century

1916 was an important year in the history of Madrid Football Club. His good performance in the Regional Championship, where he won five of his six games, gave him access to the Spanish Championship (what is currently known as the Copa del Rey). In addition, the Madrid team was forging the origins of a great team. It had Eduardo Teus as goalkeeper, René Petit's class (he can be considered as the first great Madrid star), with the Eulogio Aranguren brothers and Sotero's brother, another illustrious Madridista) and José María Pepe Castell (who would later become the architect of the old Chamartín) in the wings, with Santiago Bernabéu as center forward and Montenegro, a Huelva-born striker who had drawn attention in a match with Recreativo de Huelva, due to his seasoned play and his powerful shot upside down. Between Petit, Bernabéu and Montenegro scored the 15 goals that the Whites achieved in this tournament: each scored five goals …

After winning that Regional Championship, he agreed to play the Spanish Championship. The draw gave him a confrontation with Barcelona. They both saw each other's faces again in that tournament after having done it in 1902. And there would arise the first great row between the Whites and the Barça team: the tie had four chapters that led to the abandonment of the Barcelonistas' playing field after the award of a goal that they considered should not be worth: for them, Sotero Aranguren, goal scorer, was in an anti-regulatory position. The final was another song: he lost 4-0 to Athletic Club in a final played in Barcelona and with Paco Bru, a Barcelona player, as a referee. Citing that defeat and also because of his military obligations, the white president, Adolfo Meléndez, left the presidency. In his place, on May 21, Pedro Parages, who was already a director at the previous meeting, became president: what was achieved in this way was to guarantee continuity in the management of the white entity.

Pedro Parages Diego-Madrazo had been born in Madrid in late 1883. He had gone to study in Manchester, where he learned to play football while studying Commerce. He had a superior sense of play than the rest of his teammates. He was founder of the club, far right, one of the players who won the Spanish Cup four times in a row between 1905 to 1908, manager, president, and even became the club's number one member (he was when he died in 1950 in Bordeaux). And a passionate Madridista.

The following two years will see Madrid reach the Cup final. They will win it in 1917, when they defeated Arenas de Guecho 2-1 in the tiebreaker match and in overtime. In the Regional Championship it had devastated: six victories in as many games, with 28 goals scored (half, 14, in the last two games …). Meanwhile, in 1918 he will fall to Real Unión (2-0) in a final in which the main protagonist was René Petit (he played with the team from Irundar), although the scorer was Legarreta and twice. His campaign in the Regional Championship had not been as formidable as the previous campaign: he won five games, but three were for the minimum …

While, the club is going through a great moment in line with the boom that is experienced in the sports aspect, and above all, football. He whir of the creation of a possible Spanish Selection had taken shape throughout 1919 and that he was going to compete a year later in the Antwerp Olympic Games had given a formidable boost to the football (That's how it was written then), and it will be until the Olympic event concludes with the achievement of the silver medal: the first great success of Spanish football at an international level.

Within Madrid, good results come just as the team comes of age. Pedro Parages and his Board of Directors have other ideas in mind. On April 22, the white club celebrated its 18 years of existence (on March 6, 1902, a new board of directors was elected to issue new statutes approved that following April), and President Parages He dreams of getting a title, but although he can get it on the field of play, it hopes that it will be the Royal House that grants the possibility of using the term 'Royal'. And they started talking about that possibility. White managers have seen that other companies have addressed and obtained from King Alfonso XIII the treatment of 'Real' and they want the same for Madrid, the case of Deportivo coruñés (1909) Espanyol (the term ‘Real’ already appeared in 1911) and Mallorca (1916) to give a few examples.

For this reason, these conversations are carried out with absolute discretion, although in some media the following news is assured with some advance notice: “We understand that, at the request of the Most Excellent Captain General and through the Vice President of the Central Board of Football, he will be awarded to Madrid FC the title of Real ”). White rectors cannot risk taking a negative. To facilitate the achievement of the objective, the King is offered the presidency of honor. Don Alfonso transmits to the white interlocutors that the future is his first-born son, S.A. R. don Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, prince of Asturias, a young man of thirteen and quite fond of football. The Board of Directors accepts the royal suggestion and names him Honorary President. Parages commissioned his portrait from the painter Urquiola, a painting that until the advent of the Republic will preside over the boardroom: this canvas will disappear after the proclamation of the Second Republic. Days later, on June 29, 1920, the office of Her Majesty's Greater Stewardship was received, by which Madrid was granted Football Club the title of 'Real' through a communiqué that reads as follows: “His Majesty the King (q. D. g.), has served to grant with the greatest satisfaction the Title of Real, to that Football Club of which V. is worthy President, the which, from now on may be put before its name. What of Royal order I participate to V, for your knowledge, and consequent effects. God keep you many years. Palace June 29, 1920. The Superior Chief of Palace ”. Since then, the Madrid Club of Football became Real Madrid Club of Football. A nomenclature that continues today. It only had a temporary break: from the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931 until the end of the Civil War. Of course, one of the elements to vary was the shield: a crown was inserted, topped by a cross, the letters M (for Madrid, its bridge was tilted more to the left side), C (for Club) and F (from Football, and that grew in length). A new shield for a new stage.

On July 9, 1920, the Madrid leadership went to the Captaincy General to appoint Don Alfonso de Borbón as president of honor of the white group and receive the corresponding Royal Order. Four months later, Real Madrid Club de Football played its first match under its new name. It was a Regional Championship match against Racing that ended in a tie for two goals. Luis Torrado was the author of Real Madrid's first goal, the best team of the 20th century (FIFA named him in December 2000)…