🎥 Real Madrid post amazing Santiago Bernabéu 71st anniversary video | OneFootball

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been 71 years since Real Madrid opened up the Chamartín stadium for the first time in a friendly against Belenenses, who had just won the league in Portugal.

Sabino Barinaga, who was first discovered at Southampton, scored the first-ever goal in the new stadium as Real Madrid went on to win 3-1.

In 1955, after a vote from the club board, the stadium was re-named to the Santiago Bernabéu – named after the Real Madrid president who served from 1943 until his death in 1978.

Bernabéu signed with Real Madrid in 1911 at age 16 and literally spent his entire life with the club, playing as a striker until 1927, when he became the Director of Football before becoming the assistant manager in 1933.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War hit and the professional leagues came to a halt while Bernabéu fought for the Nationalists.

After the war, where several players and members of the administration were killed, Bernabéu took it upon himself to restructure the club.

He spent nearly a year finding and contacting former players, directors, and club members, and a new era of Real Madrid football was born.

When the stadium was first built, it was the biggest in Europe, and was initially criticised for being too big of a stadium for too small of a club, as Los Blancos had trouble competing with Spain’s giants.

However, Bernabéu came up with a new strategy to recruit world-class players from foreign lands – and the rest was history.