Why Manchester United and Real Madrid share a sacred bond of friendship
The incredible history between the 2 clubs started during the European cup semi-final in April 1957. Manchester United’s very young side (average age of 21) played Real Madrid’s “galacticos” (in today’s words), in which Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate. Even though MUFC lost, Bernabeu was very very impressed in the way United played. Santiago Bernabeu admired Sir so much that he even offered him a job. Sir Matt Busby refused as he was desperate for United to win a European cup. This friendship between Sir Matt Busby and Santiago Bernabeu grew because of the mutual respect they had for each other. This “mutual respect” would lead to incredible things….
Ten months later, Manchester United were devastated by the airplane crash when they were This killed 8 young players, three staff, 10 others and injured a dozen more. Sir Matt Busby’s dream of conquering Europe seemed over.
Fast forward 3 months… we lost the semi-final to Milan who were beaten by Real Madrid in the finals. Bernabeu, dedicated the win to his fallen friends from Manchester and even offered United the trophy, though it was turned down. When Real Madrid said, “take the trophy” they meant it. Real Madrid wanted to help United recover from the Munich Air Disaster ASAP. Madrid wanted to loan United, one of the world's best players at the time Alfredo di Stefano, “the Blond Arrow”, for the 1958–59 season.
This deal fell through because the football association said: “he would be taking the place of a potential British player.” But Real Madrid were keen to help us and their efforts continued to help us!
They made a memorial pennant with the names of the Munich dead, called “Champions of Honour”, which was sold in Spain to raise money for United. There were offers to the injured and bereaved to recuperate at Madrid’s luxurious facilities in Spain at no cost.
Manchester United’s finances also took a hit, to help with this Real Madrid organized a series of fundraising friendlies between the 2 teams!! Madrid but charged £12,000 for these, Bernabeu told United “pay what you can afford”.
These friendlies were way more than fundraisers. Because of the tragedy, it was very hard for us to stay afloat in the first division. The friendlies kept the idea of Europe alive and It gave the players the idea of how greats like Ferenc Puskas and Di Stefano played.
Lets look at the results from the games they played over the next few years.
In October 1959 Madrid won the first friendly 6–1 in front of 63,000 at Old Trafford, with Di Stefano, Puskas, and Francisco Gento outstanding.
Madrid won the rematch the following month 6–5! A game watched by 80,000 fans. That evening Madrid organized a fundraising banquet for the bereaved families of Munich in which Bernabeu said Busby was “not only the bravest but the greatest man I have ever met in football”.
The next friendly United lost 3–2 (1960) United’s team were getting much closer to Real’s and we could see the progress! In the next friendly Real Madrid lost 3–1 (1961) Real again lost 2–0 in the Bernabeu!
Remember this progress occurred because of the funds United collected because of the help provided by Real Madrid.
United won the FA Cup that season, the first trophy after Munich, and the title followed before the European Cup in 1968, United overcoming Madrid in the semi-finals on their way to the prize Busby had driven his rebuilt team towards for 10 years!!
Santiago Bernabeu after losing the game: If it had to be anyone, then I am glad it was them,” said a gracious Bernabeu afterward. He had played his own part in their resurrection.
The bond between the 2 clubs is not because of some managerial exchange/Player exchange. It’s much bigger than that. No rival club can ever have a bond this strong!
This article below was originally published as a thread on Twitter on my account (article is modified slightly): https://twitter.com/mufc_shah/status/1389077594407063553?s=20
