El Clásico

Biggest footballing rivalry: El Clásico

by APURV THAKUR

With an average television viewership of more than 400 million people worldwide, El Classico is much more than a football game. It is the battle of pride for the two biggest cities of Spain, i.e, Madrid and Barcelona which are the cities respectively having the 2^nd richest (Real Madrid C.F.: $3.44bil.) and 3^rd richest (F.C. Barcelona: $3.2bil.) football club in the world just behind the recently top placed Manchester United ($3.6 bil.). Along with Athletic Bilbao, they are the only two clubs in La Liga to have never been relegated. The El Clasico synchronizes with the heartbeat of their fans with every creative move of the team popping their hearts out. With so many footballing rivalries, this Spanish rivalry is one of the most loved as it involves best player in the world competing with each other. FIFA 2012 team of the year had 10 out of 11 players from Real Madrid and Barcelona alone (5 players each).

Football Club Barcelona was founded in the year 1899 and Real Madrid in 1902 as Madrid Football Club. The history of this rivalry started on political background so that elections to the clubs' presidencies get strongly politicized. The rivalry reflects the political and cultural tensions between Catalans and the Castilians which can be seen as a re-enactment of the Spanish Civil War. The image of the clubs was affected by Ultas group, some of which became Hooligans and were involved in severe riots between the clubs. The rivalry further intensified during 1950’s while signing the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano. Both clubs claimed to own his registration, but after intervention of FIFA, it was decided to share the player for alternate season. But Real Madrid finally signed him after Barcelona’s president somehow backed down, which proved to be the key for Real Madrid’s success.

Alfredo Di Stéfano

Originally El Clasico referred only to those competitions held in the Spanish championship, but nowadays for marketing needs the term has been generalized, and tends to include every single match between the two clubs.

Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo was crowned the world’s most marketable player with 83.9% people worldwide knowing him followed by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi with global awareness of 76.1%. With both clubs having the two undisputed best players of the game in the present time the rivalry has further increased but only for the better marketing of the clubs.

As for the face to face record,

 Ø  Real Madrid leads by 91 wins to Barcelona’s 88 with 48 draws in all competitions.

 Ø  Real Madrid has won the Spanish league title 32 times with 10 European Cup/UEFA Champions League making it the most successful club in Europe’s history. 

 Ø  Barcelona has 22 La Liga titles along with 4 UEFA Champions League trophies.

 Ø  Barcelona leads Copa del Rey(King's Cup) titles with 26 trophies compared to Real Madrid’s 19.

 Overall Barcelona has a count of 81 official titles and Real Madrid has 77.

In the past decade Barcelona proved to be a better club but Real Madrid has a rich history and the best counter attacking team in the world which shattered Barcelona’s dream with Catalans taking no silverware last season. Madrid claimed two titles last season. But this evergoing battle is not over yet with the season 2014-15 already started and the people curious for another epic battle of the footballing giants.