Kiyan Sobhani (@KiyanSo) and I have recently started a new youtube channel with Naguib Anam (@NaguibAnam) and Kartikay Khare (@kartikaykhare29) called The School of Real Madrid. The aim of our channel is to narrate and animate Real Madrid tactics, history, and other topics on a weekly basis.
Above is our second video, which breaks down the genius of the 1960 Real Madrid Dream Team.
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Real Madrid’s storied history as the greatest football club of all time truly began in the mid-1950’s, when president Santiago Bernabéu Yeste purchased the first gálacticos and ordered the construction of the famous Santiago Bernabéu stadium. The combination of multiple superstars and revenue from the powerhouse stadium helped Real Madrid dominate the sport, with their most historic achievement coming in the 1960 European Cup Final against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Legends, like Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, and Paco Gento, spearheaded an attack full of flair, invention, and fluidity. Canário and Santamaría supplemented tactical balance and solidity to this offensively-minded team thanks to the former’s work ethic in tracking back and the latter’s dominance in the air.
Miguel Muñoz meshed all of these talents together into a coherent, futuristic tactical system. He sought to play out from the back, outnumber the opposition in all areas of the field, allow freedom of expression, and retain possession of the ball through astute positioning outside of the box.
The result was total dominance; Real Madrid scored 7 goals in 70 minutes by repeatedly overloading the midfield and holding onto possession for the majority of the game.
This victory marked the high point of Muñoz’s side and also symbolized the end of an era. Real Madrid would lose to Barcelona in the round of sixteen of next year’s competition, ending their stranglehold over the world’s most prestigious club competition.
Though the memories of this great sporting event have faded and the people involved have passed, the significance of this match to the sport as a whole will live on forever. The 1960 European Cup Final helped define Real Madrid’s mythos and inspired all-time greats like Sir Alex Ferguson, who watched the game live as an 18 year-old, to make football magical.