Santiago Bernabéu, The Temple of Madrid

Last update 30 March, 2024 por Alberto Llopis

Pocos estadios pueden gozar en el mundo de haber vivido y haber visto tantas cosas como el Santiago Bernabéu. Real Madrid's stadium and on many occasions the Spanish team is one of the most spectacular and iconic venues around the world football. It is the largest, nor the prettiest, but perhaps the most daunting of all European football fields. Playing at the Bernabeu is always a tough opponent slab for lifting equipment.

Los orígenes del Bernabéu

The premiere of the field must honor the president himself Santiago Bernabéu, what in 1944 He decided to build a field that replace the old stadium Chamartin. Longtime president of the white entity (35 years in office) and he commissioned a project that would see the light 14 from December to 1947, with the dispute of a friendly Real Madrid- The Belenenses. Sabino Barinaga had the honor of scoring the first goal in the new White House.

There have been many players who have been treading the Bernabeu. Alfredo Di Stefano, Butragueño, Santillana, Juanita, Schuster, Laudrup, los Ronaldo, Zidane, Raúl, Gento o Puskas are some of the many figures who played dressed in white in the “new Chamartin”, as initially it was called.

Obviously with such names, I could not be less than the enclosure had not been home to many major competitions. Between them, a Global (año 82), a Euro Cup (64), 4 European Cup final and 35 the Copa del Rey or formerly known as the Generalissimo. Precisamente, la Copa de Europa de 1957 It would be the first major event of the new White House. The second European Cup Real Madrid would have no better stage than his own fiefdom. Gento and Di Stefano would be the figures of that legendary encounter against Fiorentina.

seven years later, luck again would be favorable. Spain became its first European Championship by winning the USSR 2-1 thanks to a header from Marcelino who stood at more than 79.000 spectators who gathered.

Las noches del Bernabéu

LCopa del Rey has also lived mythical nights at the Bernabeu. The bottle final won by Barcelona, or Centenariazo against Deportivo are among the many stories not to sleep that has lived the enclosure. Not to mention the many derbies against Atlético and especially the Barcelona, with whom he has had strong rivalries, sometimes settled in favor (5-0 of the year 95) and others against ( el 0-3 with the fans applauding Ronaldinho and recalling the famous Supercopa of Spain with Maradona almost 25 años después).

Pero quizás, the most famous Bernabeu, has come in the famous European nights of the year 80. The real Madrid, a historic club and always paid at comebacks, He had in his stage performances that earned him stellar epic victories. And is that as said one of the idols of the fans, Juanita: “Ninety minuti at the Bernabeu are molto longo”.

For it, even a manual comebacks where the first shot and the first offense necessarily had to be invented white. In that sense, el 7 blanco of the years 80 It was a true legend for the fans who always seems to remember him for all parties. his claw, madridista courage and heart endures white fans.

another idol, Raúl González Blanco fue también aclamado con cierta frecuencia. En un estadio donde es muy habitual recordar a los jugadores que han llevado gloría a Chamartín. Su espectacular trayectoria en el Real Madrid de los famosos galácticos dejó un recuerdo imborrable. His professionalism and his many goals along almost 15 años con la camiseta blanca Le convirtieron en un mito como el francés Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo (el top scorer in the history of Real Madrid), Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric y muchos muchos más.

Sede de la final del Mundial de España 1982

Con el Mundial de España en 1982 siendo una realidad para los españoles y con Luis de Carlos en la presidencia, se llevó a cabo otra gran reforma del Santiago Bernabéu. Unas mejoras de las instalaciones que ampliaron el techo de un gran número de localidades ayudando a protegerse de futuras inclemencias meteorológicas.

Esto se hizo gracias a una nueva cubierta que ocupaba parte de varias gradas. Se mejoró una vez más la iluminación y se instalaron los videomarcadores más avanzados de la época. Pura tecnología que a inicios de los 80, era una auténtica innovación. Durante ese Mundial, se disputó en el Santiago Bernabéu la fase de clasificación de uno de los grupos y la gran final, en la que la Italia de Rossi, Zoff y compañía, se impuso a Alemania 3-1.

El nuevo Santiago Bernabéu tras la reforma

Currently, el Santiago Bernabéu uno de los estadios más modernos del mundo. Con un techo retráctil que le convierte en uno de los mejores estadios cubiertos del mundo y una tecnología para retraer el césped fuera de lo común. Es sin duda uno de los estadios más avanzados tecnológicamente del mundo. Una obra faraónica culminada en 2024 bajo el segundo mandato de Florentino Pérez.