Atletico Madrid – Club History, Palmarès and Iconic Rojiblancos Jerseys

Club Atlético de Madrid, widely known as Atletico Madrid or affectionately as "Los Colchoneros" (the Mattress Makers), is one of the most historically significant and passionately supported football clubs in Spain and in world football. Founded in 1903 in the city of Madrid, capital of Spain, Atletico has spent more than a century forging an identity defined by resilience, combative spirit, and an uncompromising will to compete against the most powerful clubs in the world. The club's iconic red-and-white vertical striped shirts, worn with pride across generations of extraordinary players, are among the most recognisable and emotionally charged in European football. To wear the Atletico shirt is to subscribe to a particular vision of football: hard-fought, collective, and deeply proud.

At GoVintageJersey Store, we honour this extraordinary legacy through a curated collection of premium replica Atletico Madrid jerseys, spanning the full timeline of the club's visual history from the earliest retro kits to the latest contemporary designs. Each shirt in our collection carries within it a fragment of Atletico's story, a story of struggle, triumph, and an identity that has never bent to the pressures of fashion or commerce. For fans and collectors, owning an Atletico Madrid kit is an act of solidarity with one of football's great institutions.

Quick facts:

Founded 1903 • Stadium: Cívitas Metropolitano • Colors: Red & White • Nickname: Los Colchoneros • Competitions: La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League.

Los Colchoneros: A Complete Historical Portrait of Club Atlético de Madrid

Club Atlético de Madrid was founded on 26 April 1903 by a group of Basque students living in Madrid, initially as a branch of Athletic Club de Bilbao. The club was established to give Basque students studying in the capital an opportunity to continue playing football in their adopted city. This origin story, rooted in regionalism, migration, and community, set the tone for an institution that would always define itself through its human connections rather than its financial resources. In its earliest years, the club played in the blue-and-white stripes of Athletic Club de Bilbao, a visual identity that would not persist, but the values of hard work and collective solidarity that characterised Basque football culture became permanently embedded in Atletico's DNA. The club formally separated from its Bilbao parent in 1906, establishing itself as an independent Madrid institution and beginning the long process of constructing its own distinct identity.

Madrid, the city that defines Atletico's character, is a place of layered social and political history. As Spain's capital and largest city, Madrid has long been a stage for the country's most profound tensions and transformations, from the turbulence of the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War through the long decades of Francoist dictatorship to the vibrant democracy of the contemporary era. Atletico Madrid's history runs parallel to these national dramas in ways that fundamentally shaped the club's identity. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the club underwent a forced merger with the aviation club Aviación Nacional, becoming Atlético Aviación between 1939 and 1947, a period during which the club won its first two Spanish league titles in 1940 and 1941. The eagles' wings that appeared on the club crest during this era remain a historical marker of this complex period. Following the restoration of the club's original name in 1947, Atletico began rebuilding its identity as the proudly working-class alternative to the dominant Real Madrid, a positioning that would define its relationship with its own supporters for generations to come.

The nickname "Los Colchoneros" (the Mattress Makers) has a prosaic but historically grounded origin. In the early 20th century, the red-and-white vertical stripes of Atletico's shirts closely resembled the fabric used in the manufacture of mattresses, which was a common material in Madrid at the time. The workers who produced this fabric, typically from the poorer districts of the city, identified with the club whose colours matched their daily materials, and the nickname stuck with affectionate pride. Far from being a source of embarrassment, "Los Colchoneros" became a badge of honour, encapsulating the working-class character of the club's support base and its identification with the ordinary people of Madrid rather than with the political and economic elites who gravitated towards Real Madrid.

The club's home, the Cívitas Metropolitano (opened in 2017 and formerly known as the Wanda Metropolitano), is a modern, UEFA five-star rated stadium with a capacity of approximately 68,000 spectators, located in the San Blas-Canillejas district of eastern Madrid. It replaced the legendary Vicente Calderón, which served as Atletico's home from 1966 to 2017 and remains a place of deep sentimental attachment for supporters who experienced some of the club's greatest moments within its distinctive riverside setting on the banks of the Manzanares. The Calderón was renowned for its electric atmosphere and its intimidating effect on visiting teams, and its memory continues to occupy a central place in the club's cultural heritage. The Metropolitano, while architecturally modern and commercially sophisticated, has quickly established itself as one of Europe's great football venues, hosting the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

The club's visual identity is anchored by its red-and-white vertical stripes, a design that has remained the defining characteristic of the Atletico home shirt since the early decades of the 20th century, with the exception of the Aviación period. The crest of Atletico Madrid has evolved through several iterations over the decades, incorporating at various points the bear and madroño tree (the symbol of Madrid), the castle of Castile, and the diagonal red sash of the Community of Madrid. The current crest, in its most recent form, presents a stylised version of these traditional heraldic elements within a circular design that has become one of the most recognisable club emblems in world football. The combination of red, white, and blue (the blue appearing as a secondary colour on shorts and trim) gives Atletico's visual identity a boldness and clarity that communicates the club's character without ambiguity.

Atletico Madrid's palmarès, while not matching the trophy volumes of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, is nevertheless one of the most impressive in Spanish football. The club has won La Liga on 11 occasions, with the most recent title coming in the 2020–21 season under coach Diego Simeone, ending a ten-year wait for domestic supremacy. The club has also claimed the Copa del Rey on 10 occasions and the Spanish Super Cup twice. On the European stage, Atletico has reached the UEFA Champions League Final on three occasions (1974, 2014, and 2016), winning the competition in 1974 (after a replay against Bayern Munich) in a campaign that remains one of the most celebrated in the club's history. The club has also won the UEFA Europa League (and its predecessor the UEFA Cup) on three occasions (1977, 2010, and 2012), and the UEFA Super Cup twice (2010 and 2012). In total, Atletico has won more than 30 major trophies across its history, a record that reflects a sustained level of competitive excellence rarely acknowledged fully by those outside the club's immediate sphere.

The figure most responsible for Atletico's modern identity and competitive resurgence is Diego Pablo Simeone, the Argentine former midfielder who took charge as head coach in December 2011 and transformed the club into one of the most formidable defensive units in European football. Under Simeone's management, Atletico won La Liga in 2013–14 and 2020–21, reached two Champions League finals (2014 and 2016), won two Europa League titles, and established a style of play characterised by intense pressing, collective organisation, and an indomitable competitive spirit that came to be known worldwide as "Cholismo" (derived from Simeone's nickname "El Cholo"). Simeone's Atletico represented a philosophical counter-model to the possession-based football of Barcelona and the galáctico approach of Real Madrid, demonstrating that a club with significantly inferior financial resources could compete at the highest level through tactical intelligence and collective commitment.

Among the legendary players who have defined Atletico Madrid's history, several names stand above the rest. Luis Aragonés, the "Wise Man of Hortaleza," is perhaps the most iconic figure in the club's playing history, a technically gifted and fiercely competitive forward who spent the majority of his career at Atletico and later managed the club on multiple occasions. Adelardo Rodríguez, who served the club with distinction across three decades, is another pillar of Atletico's historical identity. In the modern era, Fernando Torres ("El Niño"), who came through Atletico's youth academy and made his senior debut for the club before his departure to Liverpool, returned to the Metropolitano in the final stages of his career in a reunion that moved supporters to tears. Diego Forlán, the Uruguayan striker whose thunderous long-range goals became a defining feature of Atletico's Europa League campaigns, and Antoine Griezmann, the French forward whose precise finishing and creative intelligence made him one of the most dangerous attackers in European football during his time at the club, are further examples of the calibre of talent that has worn the rojiblancos shirt with distinction.

To explore the full depth of Atletico Madrid's remarkable history, we invite you to visit our dedicated storytelling blog "Red & White Passion: Emotional Tales from Atletico Madrid", which brings to life the iconic moments, legendary players, and unforgettable kits that have defined the club's century-long journey.

Atletico Madrid Kits Through the Eras: From Retro Stripes to Modern Designs

The football kits of Club Atlético de Madrid constitute one of the most visually coherent and historically consistent design traditions in European football. The red-and-white vertical stripes that have defined the Atletico home shirt since the early decades of the 20th century represent one of the sport's most enduring visual signatures, a design so strongly associated with the club's identity that even significant changes in manufacturers, sponsors, and fabric technology have never fundamentally altered its essential character. From the heavy cotton shirts of the pre-war era to the technically engineered performance garments of the contemporary game, each iteration of the Atletico kit has expressed the same fundamental values: directness, strength, and an unambiguous declaration of identity.

The historical and social context of Atletico's kits is inseparable from the broader story of Spain in the 20th century. During the Spanish Civil War and the early years of the Franco dictatorship, Spanish football clubs were subjected to significant political interference, including forced mergers and name changes. Atletico's transformation into Atlético Aviación between 1939 and 1947, and the associated modifications to the club's crest and visual identity during this period, represent a chapter of the club's history in which the shirt carried meanings that went far beyond sport. The red-and-white stripes, when they returned in their undiluted form after 1947, were understood by supporters as a reaffirmation of the club's identity following years of politically imposed modification. In later decades, during the economic hardships that affected large sections of the Spanish working class in the 1970s and 1980s, the Atletico shirt became an even more powerful symbol of solidarity and communal pride, worn by supporters who identified deeply with the club's underdog status in relation to the wealthier Madrid institutions.

The chronological evolution of Atletico's kits traces a clear arc from functional simplicity to commercial sophistication. In the 1940s and 1950s, the club wore basic cotton shirts with broad red-and-white vertical stripes and minimal design detail, reflecting the austerity of post-war Spain and the utilitarian approach to kit manufacture of the era. The 1960s and 1970s brought new synthetic fabrics and the first commercial partnerships, with manufacturers such as Meyba and later Adidas beginning to apply their own design language to the fundamental red-and-white template. The Atletico kit worn during the club's 1973–74 European Cup campaign (in which the club reached the final before losing in a replay to Bayern Munich) has become one of the most celebrated retro designs in Spanish football, associated with a generation of players who demonstrated that Atletico could compete with the very best clubs in Europe. The 1980s and early 1990s saw Atletico partnering primarily with Meyba and subsequently with Kelme, producing a series of kits that balanced the club's traditional aesthetic with the bolder, more graphic design sensibility of the era. The mid-1990s brought iconic kits from manufacturers including Nike, whose partnership with Atletico produced some of the most visually distinctive designs in the club's history, including the celebrated 1994–95 Marbella-sponsored home shirt and the dramatic 1996–97 Bandai-sponsored kit, both of which have since achieved significant collector value. The 2000s produced perhaps the most culturally unexpected kit in Atletico's history: the 2004–05 Spider-Man 2 sponsored shirt, in which the Marvel superhero's logo appeared on the front of the Atletico home kit as part of a promotional partnership with Sony Pictures. This kit, worn during a period of significant financial difficulty for the club, has since become one of the most discussed and collected novelty kits in world football, a reminder that even the most tradition-bound clubs occasionally produce designs that reflect the commercial and cultural preoccupations of their moment. The 2010s marked a return to visual seriousness under Simeone's stewardship, with Nike producing a series of technically sophisticated and aesthetically coherent kits that matched the club's new competitive status, culminating in the extraordinary 2013–14 La Liga and Champions League final season kit bearing the Azerbaijan sponsorship, which has become inextricably associated with one of the most dramatic seasons in the club's modern history. The 2018–19 VaporMatch home shirt, worn during the season in which Atletico hosted the Champions League final at its own stadium, represents another landmark design in the club's recent visual history. Moving into the 2020s, sustainability and technical innovation have become central considerations in Atletico's kit production, with Nike introducing recycled materials and advanced performance fabrics that honour the club's traditional aesthetic while meeting the demands of the contemporary game.

The history of Atletico Madrid's shirt sponsorships is a vivid record of the club's commercial evolution across five decades. Atletico was among the first Spanish clubs to introduce a commercial shirt sponsor, and the succession of brands that have appeared on the rojiblancos shirt tells a story about both the club's financial trajectory and the broader commercialisation of Spanish football. Among the most historically significant partnerships was the long association with Marbella (the Andalusian resort city that sponsored the shirt during the mid-1990s), which produced the iconic 1994–95 home kit associated with a period of significant domestic ambition. The Bandai sponsorship of the 1996–97 kit, featuring the Japanese toy manufacturer's logo, reflected the growing globalisation of football's commercial relationships. The remarkable Columbia Pictures/Spider-Man 2 deal for the 2004–05 season represented an entirely new category of shirt sponsorship, bringing Hollywood's promotional budgets into Spanish football in a way that had never been seen before. The long-running association with Plus500, the online trading platform that sponsored the Atletico shirt from 2015 to 2021, covered the club's most successful period under Simeone and became one of the most recognisable sponsor-kit combinations in European football. The current partnership with Acronis, the Swiss-Singaporean data protection company, reflects the club's contemporary commercial positioning as a globally recognised brand with strong appeal in technology and digital markets.

The legendary players associated with the Atletico Madrid shirt across its various eras form a roster of remarkable talent and personality. In the post-war era, Luis Aragonés wore the shirt with a distinction that made him the most beloved figure in the club's playing history, his technical quality and competitive ferocity perfectly embodying the Atletico spirit. Adelardo Rodríguez, who made over 550 appearances for the club between 1959 and 1976, represents the ideal of long-term loyalty and professional excellence. In the 1970s, players such as José Eulogio Gárate and Rubén Marcos wore the red-and-white stripes during the club's greatest European campaign. Moving into the modern era, Diego Forlán's thunderous goals in the 2009–10 Europa League campaign, Radamel Falcao's explosive and prolific two seasons at the club (2011–2013), Antoine Griezmann's six-year reign as the club's creative and goalscoring fulcrum, and Jan Oblak's sustained excellence as arguably the finest goalkeeper in the world during the Simeone era, all represent chapters in an ongoing story of the Atletico shirt being worn with distinction by players of the very highest quality.

GoVintageJersey Store & Atletico Madrid Jerseys

At GoVintageJersey Store, our mission is to preserve and celebrate the heritage of world football through a carefully curated collection of premium replica jerseys. We treat each football kit as a historical artefact, a physical record of a specific moment in a club's journey that carries within its fabric the values, achievements, and identity of the era it represents. Our commitment to historical fidelity and production quality ensures that every Atletico Madrid jersey in our collection genuinely honours the original design it reproduces, from the precise calibration of stripe width and colour to the accurate reproduction of sponsor logos and period-specific badge details. Whether the shirt dates from the celebrated 1990s Nike era, the commercially surprising Spider-Man 2 period, or the trophy-laden Simeone years, each piece in our collection is chosen for its historical significance and the quality of its craftsmanship.

Our Atletico Madrid Collection represents one of the most comprehensive selections of Atletico kits available to fans and collectors today. The collection spans the full chronological range of the club's kit history, from the retro designs of the pre-Simeone era through the commercially distinctive kits of the 1990s and 2000s to the technically sophisticated Nike productions of the contemporary period. Each jersey reflects a specific chapter in the club's story, whether defined by a landmark competition campaign, a culturally distinctive sponsorship arrangement, or an era-defining generation of players. Multiple models, colourways, and sponsor variations are available, ensuring that every generation of Atletico supporter and every era of the club's history is represented within the collection.

For the stories behind these iconic jerseys, discover Atletico Stories, our dedicated storytelling space where every strip tells its own tale, from the European campaigns of the 1970s to the dramatic finals and title triumphs of the Simeone era.

Craftsmanship & Features of Atletico Madrid Kits at GoVintageJersey Store

Every Atletico Madrid jersey available at GoVintageJersey Store is produced to the highest standards of quality and historical fidelity, combining technical expertise with a deep respect for the original designs that define the rojiblancos visual heritage:

• 100% premium polyester with fade-resistant, wash-stable colours ensuring the red-and-white stripes retain their vibrancy over time
• Period-accurate stripe calibration, collar construction, and badge reproduction maintaining historical fidelity across all eras
• Custom name, number, and patch options available, reproduced in fonts and styles faithful to the specific kit era
• Multiple adult sizes available from S to XXL and beyond, with our Size Chart providing precise guidance for the correct fit
• Breathable, moisture-wicking fabric construction delivering all-day comfort for collectors and casual wearers alike
• Unisex cut suitable for matchday support, everyday wear, and dedicated kit collection
• Reinforced stitching at all stress points ensuring long-term structural integrity and durability
• Accurate sponsor logo and competition badge reproduction preserving the complete visual identity of each era

Each Atletico Madrid jersey in our collection is constructed to maintain its quality, colour, and structural integrity through regular washing. The advanced colour-retention technology applied to our premium polyester fabric ensures that the iconic red-and-white stripes remain as precise and vivid after repeated washing as they were on the day of purchase, making every shirt a lasting and dependable addition to any collection or wardrobe.

About GoVintageJersey Store

GoVintageJersey Store is a trusted and specialised retailer dedicated exclusively to the world of football jerseys, combining deep expertise in football kit history with advanced replica production capabilities that span the full spectrum from retro and vintage designs to the latest contemporary releases. Our manufacturing process applies meticulous historical research at every stage, from the selection of appropriate fabric weights and colour formulations to the precise reproduction of badges, sponsor logos, and period-specific design details, ensuring that every replica we produce is genuinely faithful to the original in all meaningful respects. We offer multiple adult sizes across our entire range, and our customisation service enables customers to add names, numbers, and era-accurate patches, creating personalised pieces that honour the history they celebrate. Every order placed with GoVintageJersey Store benefits from free worldwide shipping on eligible orders, with delivery available to the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and all major global destinations. Our commitment to democratising access to football heritage means we maintain competitive, accessible pricing without any compromise on the quality of materials or production. Every purchase is supported by our dedicated customer service team, processed through secure, encrypted payment systems, dispatched with a tracking number for complete delivery transparency, and protected by our 30-day return guarantee, ensuring confidence and satisfaction at every stage of the purchasing experience.

Explore Atletico Madrid's History & Iconic Kits

Discover the full breadth of Club Atlético de Madrid's extraordinary history, from the founding years and the Aviación era through the European campaigns of the 1970s, the commercially distinctive kits of the 1990s and 2000s, and the trophy-laden Simeone decade, through our Atletico Madrid Football Kits Collection at GoVintageJersey Store. Each jersey carries a story of determination, identity, and competitive pride, connecting the generations of supporters who have made Atletico one of football's most enduring and passionately supported institutions to the fans and collectors of today.

Frequently Asked Questions about Atletico Madrid & Its Historic Kits