Sport in Spain - Football

Football

Football is the most popular sport in Spain. La Liga or Primera División (The Spanish League) is considered to be one of the world's best competitions. Successful teams in recent European competitions are FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla,Celta,Valencia and Atlético Madrid. Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated with La Liga for much of its history, and created an intimate rivalry. Real Madrid has been dubbed by many pundits as the most successful club in Europe, having won the UEFA Champions League a record 9 times, almost all other UEFA club competitions at least once and the La Liga a record 32 times. This said, as of 2009, FC Barcelona is both champion of La Liga and the UEFA Champions League's victor.Also FC Barcelona has won the "Copa del Rey" championship. Other teams such as Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia have also gained prominence by winning the UEFA Cup in 2009, 2006–2007 and 2004 respectively.

The Spanish national football team has been successful and have qualified for the FIFA World Cup tournament thirteen times since 1930. In 2010, Spain defeated the Netherlands in the final to win the tournament for the first time. In the European Championship they were champions in 1964, 2008 and 2012 and runners-up in 1984. Spain has won two medals in football Olympic Games tournaments. They have won a silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and won a gold medal during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

The youth teams have also been quite successful in the last decade. The U-20 team won the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1999 and were runners-up in 1985 and 2003. The U-17 team was runners-up three times and won third place in 1997 in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.