Story
The story of Bernabéu
When Santiago Bernabéu became president of Real Madrid in September 1943, he told his board: "Gentlemen, we need a bigger field and we are going to build it." The old Campo de Chamartín, even after renovations brought it to 25,000 seats, was no longer enough, and Bernabéu dreamed of a stadium for close to 75,000 spectators.
Land beside the old ground, on the extension of the Paseo de la Castellana, was bought, and in September 1944 a jury picked the design of Manuel Muñoz Monasterio and Luis Alemany Soler from seven projects. Real Madrid has played here since 1947. After a renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium in Chamartín has a retractable roof and seats 83,186.
Look up at the stands and imagine the European Cup finals of 1957, 1969, 1980 and 2010, the 1964 European Nations' Cup final and the 1982 World Cup final, all played on this pitch.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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