Real Madrid’s third La Liga title in five years has the club poised to assert dominance over Spain.

If you started following Real Madrid in the 2010s, La Liga titles might feel like a rarity to you. Even if you started following them before that, the 2010s might have made you forget the Spanish league has traditionally been Madrid’s playground. They’re celebrating title number 36. It’s only 2024 and this is the club’s third La Liga title of the 2020s. Hopefully, it’s starting to feel like a habit for the team and the fans, but it’s a return to an old habit.

Let’s start by looking at how Madrid’s fared by decade in terms of winning La Liga (using the years in which the season was completed):

2020s: 3 (2024, 2022, 2020)

2010s: 2 (2012, 2017)

2000s: 4 (2001, 2003, 2007, 2008)

1990s: 3 (1990, 1995, 1997)

1980s: 5 (1980, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989)

1970s: 5 (1972, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979)

1960s: 8 (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969)

1950s: 4 (1954, 1955, 1957, 1958)

1940s: 0

1930s: 2 (1932, 1933)

.

Hard to miss the regularity. From 1954-2008, Madrid won 29 of 55 league titles. That’s 52.7% of the time. In any given season during that run, Madrid was more likely than not to win the title. If you were being given a pick between Real Madrid and the entire rest of the field, you’d have been wise to pick Real Madrid.

.

The Blond Arrow

.

As with all things related to Real Madrid, this traces back to Alfredo Di Stefano. Prior to his arrival, Madrid was a bit of an also-ran in La Liga. It won back-to-back titles in 1932 and 1933 thanks to legendary Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora and lead striker Manuel Olivares, but Athletic Bilbao was the initial superclub in Spanish football. Then came the Spanish Civil War, in which Madrid was the last major city to fall to Generalissimo Franco, and like much of the city, the club took more than a decade to recover. Atletico Aviacion (later renamed Atletico Madrid) was the initial club in favor in the Spanish capital, and Barcelona thrived, winning five of nine titles from 1945-1953. Madrid collected two 2nd place finishes and three 3rds in La Liga’s first 14 season post-Civil War.

.

By the time Di Stefano arrived in Madrid in 1953, Barcelona had won six titles, Bilbao had five and Atletico had four. La Saeta Rubia (the Blond Arrow), who had dominated South American football over the previous eight seasons with two titles in Argentina and three in Colombia, immediately led the league in scoring with 27 goals and led Madrid to the title. Technically he was listed as a forward, but he dominated the entire field box-to-box and then served as the team’s primary scorer and playmaker on top of that.

.

In 11 seasons at Madrid, Di Stefano would win eight titles. He also famously led Madrid in winning the first five European Cup titles. When the subject of who’s the best player ever comes up, just make it easy on yourself and answer Di Stefano (it will completely confuse Messi fanboys). He completely changed the landscape of the professional game. Everyone else is playing in his shadow.

.

However, he didn’t do it alone. Goal-scoring machine Ferenc Puskas would come over from Hungary and the marauding Paco Gento would be the leading light from the contingent of Spanish greats on the team. Seriously, watching Gento blow past dudes will give you strong Gareth Bale 2014 Copa Del Rey vibes.

.

Yé-yé

.

As you can see above, the dominance that started in the 1950s became all-encompassing in the 1960s, with eight league titles in 10 seasons. Gento was there for all of it, though Di Stefano and Puskas eventually gave way to Amancio Amaro (El Brujo), Pirri, Zoco, Grosso and Velazquez. I mean, how can a serious Spanish institution not have Velazquez hanging on its walls?

.

Ultimately the team became famous for winning the 1966 European Cup, taking their Yé-yé name from their Beatles mop-top haircuts. Yet in Spain they just outclassed everyone. Only losing the league on a tiebreaker to Barcelona in 1960 and by a point to Atletico in 1966.

.

La Quinta del Buitre

.

The team wasn’t quite as dominant in the 1970s, but it still won five times in six seasons from 1975-80 with a team anchored by some defensive midfielder named Vicente del Bosque. Wonder whatever happened to that guy? Then came the reload in the early 1980s, when a bunch of kids from the cantera refortified the ranks. Emilio Butragueno (El Buitre, aka the Vulture) would lead a team that included attacking midfielder Michel, Mexican goalscoring ace Hugo Sanchez (unreal finishing skills) and sweeper Manolo Sanchis (son of Yé-yé stalwart Manuel Sanchis). They would win five straight La Liga titles from 1986-1990. Under Dutch manager Leo Beenhakker for three of those seasons they were playing a version of Total Football that took them to the European Cup semifinals. But despite back-to-back UEFA Cups in 1985 and 1986, they never quite found European success to match their domestic bliss.

.

It should also be noted that from the dawn of Di Stefano through the height of La Quinta it was dark times for FC Barcelona. If you believe in the power of morbo, it was never sweeter than from 1954-1990, 37 seasons in which the Cules only won four league titles to Madrid’s 23. However, an unexpected jolt of pain would then emerge from the island of Tenerife.

.

Barcelona hired Johan Cruyff to be its manager (best thing the club ever did) and he built what is now known as the Dream Team: Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov, Pep Guardiola, Miguel Angel Nadal, Ronald Koeman, Txiki Begiristan - you know the names. They won the league in 1991 to set up their first European Cup win 1992 (the last year before the competition changed its name to the Champions League).

.

Madrid, however, bounced back and had the chance to clinch the 1992 La Liga crowd on the final day of the season in Tenerife. Just 28 minutes into the game Madrid was up 2-0 thanks to goals from Fernando Hierro and Gheorghe Hagi. Plus Tenerife had been forced to sub in its backup keeper. Then everything went to hell. A Madrid goal was improperly ruled offside, Butragueno couldn’t convert a breakaway, Buyo pushed a ball over the line, Tenerife won. June 6, 1992 ranks as the most tragic day in Real Madrid history.

.

Then in 1993 Madrid once again went to Tenerife with the chance to clinch the league on the final day of the season. This time they lost less dramatically, but whisper the word "Tenerife" into the ear of a Madrileno of a certain age and they will experience a convulsive shiver.

.

Other Priorities

.

As always, and this is the moral of the story, Madrid bounced back. From 1995-2003, the club won four of nine league titles. It tacked on another two in 2007 and 2008 (more on that in a minute). But things got chaotic. Players, managers and club presidents cycled in and out of the club. Fabio Capello twice managed the club to league titles (1997 and 2007) and both times got dismissed after just one season. Raul was the constant.

.

President Lorenzo Sanz wanted a return to European success, which he got in 1998 and 2000. Then he was replaced by Florentino Perez, who wanted to take over the world with Los Galacticos. Madrid won the Champions League in 2002 and La Liga and 2001 and 2003 under the tutelage of Vicente Del Bosque (so that’s what happened to him). Then Perez sacked Del Bosque and they didn’t win anything again until 2007. Three seasons, no trophies. It was rough.

.

Ramon Calderon replaced Perez in 2006. While the lineup and managerial chaos continued, Madrid did put together two league winners. The 2007 Capello-led league winners were deemed too cynical, but the 2008 Bernd Shuster-led team played some pretty football with Guti spraying around 17 assists and the team leading the league with 84 goals. If you saw the league clincher, a man-down 2-1 comeback at Osasuna with an 87th minute goal from Arjen Robben and another in the 89th minute from Gonzalo Higuain…well, you probably just smiled while reading those words. Barcelona had to form a column of honor for them in the next game. 2007-2008 was a good year.

.

Zizou

.

Yet Barcelona then evolved into its best-ever era. After a crisis in faith in Shuster, Juande Ramos took over Madrid in December of 2009, which then went into a 17-win, 1-tie stretch after a loss to Barca. Unfortunately the team melted down at home with a chance to overtake their Catalan rivals and piled on four more losses to end the season. Then Florentino came back and he bought Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso and Kaka. Fans were drunk with anticipation. Manuel Pellegrini took over and delivered 96 points, 102 goals and a +67. Sadly, it was three points shy of Barca.

.

Then came Jose Mourinho. 92 points, 102 goals and a +69 followed, but it was four points shy of Barca. Finally Madrid broke through in 2012 with 100 points, 121 goals and a +89. These are video game numbers. What we got from both of the eternal rivals throughout this era was absurd, It was the two greatest scorers in European club football history at their peaks. It led to European dominance too.

.

After a slump in 2013, Carlo Ancelotti came in and had two near misses in La Liga. The team fell three points shy of Atletico in 2014 (but beat them for La Decima in the Champions League). Tattoo 92:48 on my heart. In 2015, the team looked like it had La Liga in hand, but dropped 8 points in March and ended up finishing two points shy of Barca.

.

Then, after a half season under Rafa Benitez, Zinedine Zidane took over the reins. A Champions League title and a surge in the league followed, with Madrid missing the title by a point. The next year he made it clear Madrid wanted the league, with perhaps the deepest team ever assembled they got it. Zizou had Madrisimo in his veins from his time leading the Galacticos. He got it from Del Bosque, who got it from Miguel Munoz, who played alongside and managed Di Stefano. The pride in this club is a communicable disease.

.

After Zidane left and returned, and then a pandemic interrupted the season, he uttered the words that may come to define Madrid’s current era: "Every game is a final from here on out." The team had 11 games remaining when the league resumed in June, 2020. It won 10 in a row to clinch the league behind multiple acts of heroism from Sergio Ramos.

.

New Day Rising

.

Zizou would have gone back-to-back on league titles in 2021, but VAR officials employed a fairly extreme use of the rewind function during a May 9 contest against Sevilla. It erased a goal from Karim Benzema and awarded a penalty to Sevilla. For the record, Eder Militao did play the ball with his hand. Whether that counts as the same phase of play that resulted in Madrid’s goal was, is and always will be highly questionable.

.

Ancelotti returned in 2022 to win the double behind a magical season from Benzema and, after much consternation in 2023, has added the 2024 title to the stockpile. With five more titles to be won in the 2020s, it positions the team to have a banner decade. It’s already matched its 1990s haul. One more win will equal the 2000s and 1950s. With Kylian Mbappe supposedly on the way, Jude Bellingham taking the world by storm, and a phalanx of young players forming the team’s current core, it’s not hard to imagine the club surpassing its 1970s and 1980s totals.

.

Catching up to the 1960s (which would require six league titles in a row) seems a big ask, but the time when Real Madrid once again sits atop the Spanish throne more often than not might be upon us.