The membership fee was also set, two pesetas a month, and the color of the shirt was chosen to be white in honour of a famous English team Corinthian, which Juan Padrós had met on one of his trips.

[61] Real Madrid's achievements in Europe were built upon its unprecedented domestic dominance, with the club winning twelve league titles out of sixteen possible from 1953–54 to 1968–69, including a five-in-a-row sequence in 1961–65, and finishing runners-up a further three times.

[70][71] Spanish sports journalist Julio César Iglesias gave to this generation the name La Quinta del Buitre ("Vulture's Cohort"), which was derived from the nickname given to one of its members, Emilio Butragueño.

In Del Bosque's first season in charge, Real won the Champions League for the eighth time, following a 3–0 victory over Valencia in the final, with goals from Morientes, McManaman and Raúl.

[77] The following year, the club had its training ground rezoned and used the money to begin assembling the Galácticos team by signing a global star every summer, which included Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luís Figo, David Beckham and Fabio Cannavaro.

[85] A brief return to form came to an abrupt halt after Madrid lost the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals 6–1 to Real Zaragoza,[86] a defeat that was nearly reversed with a 4–0 home victory.

Real finished runners-up to Barça in La Liga, accumulating 85 points, and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the third year in a row, where they were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund 3–4 on aggregate.

[118] During the last week of the 2014 summer transfer window, Real Madrid sold two players key to the previous season's successes: Xabi Alonso to Bayern Munich and Ángel Di María to Manchester United.

[124] Overall, despite playing an attractive attacking football and being the highest scoring team in Europe with 118 league goals,[125] several narrow defeats meant that Real finished the season with two trophies out of six possible, which contributed to the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti on 25 May 2015.

In the Copa del Rey round of 32, Real accidentally fielded an ineligible player in a 3–1 first leg win at Cádiz and was disqualified from the tournament two days later by the competition judge, despite protests from president Pérez.

The notable results include a 2–1 away victory over reigning treble winners Barcelona, who were on a record-breaking winning streak, a fantastic comeback against Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarter-finals (after losing the away game 0–2, Madrid erased the deficit and won 3–0 at home, courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick), as well as a 12-game winning streak to conclude the league campaign, meaning Real finished second, with 90 points and just one point behind champions Barcelona, coming agonizingly close to clinching the title and overcoming a 12-point deficit in the process.

After a 1–5 loss to Barcelona in El Clásico on 28 October which left Real Madrid in the ninth place with only 14 points after ten games, Lopetegui was dismissed a day later and replaced by then Castilla coach, Santiago Solari.

[162] After a three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, La Liga was restarted in June and Madrid won ten games in a row to capture the team's 34th league title, collecting 87 points in total.

[163] From the competition's resumption in June and until the end of the 2020–21 season, Real temporarily played home fixtures at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium, while the Santiago Bernabéu underwent extensive renovations.

The season ended with Real Madrid winning the 2022–23 Copa del Rey, but losing the La Liga and Spanish Super Cup to FC Barcelona and the Champions League to Manchester City, being defeated 5–1 on aggregate.

[49] In 1941, two years after Nationalist victory in the Civil War, the Francoist regime restored the crest's "Real Corona", or "Royal Crown", while the mulberry stripe of Castile was retained as well.

The contract includes a clause sanctioning penalty or agreement termination anytime, if Real Madrid fails to qualify for the European competitions or is relegated from La Liga.

[222][223] Six other players have also scored over 200 goals for Real: Alfredo Di Stéfano (1953–1964), Santillana (1971–1988), Ferenc Puskás (1958–1966), Hugo Sánchez (1985–1992), Karim Benzema (2009–2023) and the previous goalscoring record-holder Raúl (1994–2010).

[242] Questioned over Pope Francis' adherence to 2014 FIFA Club World Cup Final opponents San Lorenzo, Madrid captain Sergio Ramos stated: "In the semi-finals we noticed the love from supporters in Marrakesh and it seemed like we were playing at home.

[243] Among the club's famous supporters is golfer Sergio García, who was invited to take the honorary kickoff for El Clásico at the Bernabeu wearing his green jacket from winning the 2017 Masters.

Soon after Millonarios' return to Colombia, Barcelona directors visited Buenos Aires and agreed with River Plate, the last FIFA-affiliated team to have held Di Stéfano's rights, for his transfer in 1954 for the equivalent of 150 million Italian lira (according to other sources 200,000 dollars).

[258] In October 1999, Real Madrid forward Raúl silenced 100,000 Barcelona fans at the Camp Nou when he scored before he celebrated by putting a finger to his lips as if telling the crowd to be quiet.

[258] Later that year, in August, Ronaldo was subbed on in the first leg of the Supercopa de España, proceeded to score in the 80th minute and took his shirt off before holding it up to Barça's fans with his name and number facing them.

Atlético, however, gained some revenge when, led by former Real Madrid coach José Villalonga, it defeated its city rivals in two successive Copa del Generalísimo finals in 1960 and 1961.

[275] Athletic Bilbao, who operate a policy of only using local players,[276] have long since ceased to be a competitive rival to clubs such as Real Madrid who scour the globe for the best talent; the Lions won only two of the 26 matches between the teams from 2005–06 to 2016–17.

[272][277][278] However, the matches remain keenly fought due to their historical and cultural significance, with some parallels to the political aspect of the Barcelona/Catalonia rivalry as Athletic are the largest club in the Basque region.

[296][297] Cristiano Ronaldo scored three goals over the two matches including the decisive penalty and a spectacular overhead kick,[298] and having won the Champions League with Madrid for a fourth time,[299] he transferred to Juventus a few months later for a €117 million fee.

Real Madrid squad members featured in the film included Iker Casillas, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Raúl, Sergio Ramos, Robinho, Michael Owen, Míchel Salgado, Júlio Baptista, Steve McManaman and Iván Helguera.

Non-Real Madrid players to make cameo appearances included Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o, Andrés Iniesta, Pablo Aimar, Freddie Ljungberg, Cesc Fàbregas and Santiago Cañizares.

Although the film mentions all of the squad, it mainly focuses on galácticos such as David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Raúl, Luís Figo, Ronaldo, Iker Casillas and Roberto Carlos, among others.