Real Madrid’s illusive Treble dream

Los Blancos are without a doubt the most successful European club in the game’s history, winning the most La Liga titles (33), the most European Cup / UEFA Champions League trophies (13) and they have also won the FIFA Club World Cup a record number of times (4). Real Madrid have managed to win all European and international competitions other than the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in which they were runners-up twice. Unrelenting in their quest for football dominance, there is one achievement that the club haven’t managed to accomplish – the treble.

Years and years of success have left the fans of the club demanding more trophies as the seasons have continued. A sustained winning culture which has rarely been interrupted. In fact, the longest period without lifting a major trophy in Real Madrid’s history came when La Liga hadn’t even been established yet and all there was to play for was the Copa del Rey. The club managed to win the trophy in 1917 but then failed to win it again on fifteen occasions before reclaiming the cup in 1933-34. Their actual trophy drought ended in only the third ever season of La Liga, when Real Madrid won their first league title after the conclusion of the 1931-32 La Liga season and since then they have been winning trophies regularly.

When UEFA was founded in 1954, European football finally had a governing body and one year later the European Cup had been founded. It was the perfect time for a club side overflowing with talent. Having said that, there was one piece missing in Real Madrid’s puzzle – Alfredo di Stéfano. He wouldn’t have joined Real Madrid had it not been for the club president at the time Santiago Bernabéu de Yeste. The same man whose name decorates the club’s iconic stadium today. The president would make sure that Real Madrid and not FC Barcelona would be di Stéfano’s destination. A master stroke seeing as the Argentine had all but made his way to Barcelona but would end up making his way to the Spanish capital instead.

Real Madrid’s golden generation would win the European Cup on five occasions from 1955-56 until 1959-60, a feat that has never been replicated. The side also became the first ‘club champions of the world’ when they won the 1960 Intercontinental Cup, which is now known as the FIFA Club World Cup. Be that as it may, the treble was however one sequence of trophies that the likes of di Stéfano, Puskás, Marquitos and Rial, to name a few, couldn’t claim.

In the five seasons that Real Madrid won the European Cup, they only managed to win the league title twice (1956-57, 1957-58) and failed to win the Copa del Rey. In the 1957 Copa del Rey, Los Blancos were convincingly beaten 8-3 on aggregate by a rampant FC Barcelona side. The golden generation came close to completing the illusive treble in the 1958 Copa del Rey Final against Athletic Bilbao. It didn’t go their way as they were defeated 2-0 and the side that some consider to be the greatest of all time could not produce the all defining season that they had craved.

Two years after their fifth European Cup victory, the treble looked to surely be theirs. Real Madrid had won the 1961-62 La Liga season and all that stood in their way was SL Benfica. The Portuguese club had claimed their first European Cup title in the previous season, beating FC Barcelona 3-2 in the 1961 final. It looked to be all going according to plan for Los Blancos; di Stéfano provided the assist for Puskás, who scored the opening goal of the 1962 European Cup Final. Then unbelievably, they went 2-0 up and it was that man again, Ferenc Puskás, who scored an absolute humdinger from way outside the box. Ten minutes later, Real Madrid conceded their second goal but would go into half-time 3-2 ahead, Puskás making sure of his hat-trick before heading into the break.

Real Madrid were 45 minutes away from not only lifting the European Cup for the sixth time in seven seasons but also from possibly becoming the first ever club to win the treble. They had managed to make it to the Semi-finals of the Copa del Rey and were favourites to clinch the cup for the first time since 1947. History tended to be on the Spanish giants side, however it was a half to forget for Real Madrid fans and Eusébio’s crowning moment. The Portuguese legend would convert a penalty to make it 4-3 and also completely shatter Real Madrid’s dreams of the treble by making it 5-3 in the 69th minute. SL Benfica would lift the European Cup for a second consecutive season running but it would be the last time they would lift a European trophy to date. Over two months later on the 8th of July 1962 Ferenc Puskás scored a brace against Sevilla FC in the Copa del Rey final, which saw his side complete the double.

It wasn’t to be and Real Madrid’s golden generation would never again have the chance to win the treble. The era that made Real Madrid the club that it is today was incredibly successful and the magnificent names that graced their team sheet in those days probably would regret very little. Nonetheless as time has gone on and we have had time to reflect, it was the only thing that they missed out on. They won the European Cup from 1955-56 until 1959-60 and then won La Liga five times in a row from 1960-61 until 1964-65. In the same period in which they won five league titles on the trot, they failed to win the European Cup, although the side had made it to the final on two occasions. Their only Copa del Rey triumph in the ten season’s previously mentioned came in 1961-62.

The incredible thing about that generation of Real Madrid players is that they came closest to winning the treble in a season in which they didn’t win the European Cup, 1961-62. The final in Amsterdam against SL Benfica was the closest a Real Madrid team ever came to winning all three coveted trophies in the same season. They were only 45 minutes away from glory.

Since the 1960s Los Blancos failed to win the league and cup in many of the seasons in which they won the European Cup or UEFA Champions League. In 1965-66, 1997-98, 1999-00, 2001-02, 2015-16 and 2017-18; Real Madrid were crowned champions of Europe but couldn’t claim a league or cup trophy. In 2013-14, their neighbouring rivals Atlético Madrid historically won La Liga by three points and in 2016-17 Real Madrid would lose to Celta de Vigo in the Quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. In both of those seasons Los Blancos had managed to do the double.

The most successful club in European football history will continue to regret 45 minutes in which they couldn’t produce the goods in the 1962 European Cup Final. A club of this magnitude will most certainly be looking to rectify not having added this illustrious trophy combination to the list of their accomplishments. For now their legions of fans will have to patiently wait for that day to come.