Is the Real Decima the Great Achievement That it`s Painted As?

Real Madrid recently completed a deserved Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid. Very few neutrals will have been rooting for Los Blancos against the much admired Atleti, but ultimately on the balance of play, you have to say that they deserved it.

By winning this year’s Champions League, Real completed the so-called decima the supposedly unique feat of winning ten European Cup / Champions League titles. This sounds great in principle, and Real declare themselves to be the biggest and best club in the history of the world. But is the decima all it’s cracked up to be?

In my opinion, certainly not. It’s worth pointing out that Real won the first five European Cups. I don`t care what anyone says, you cannot compare the game then to now. It was barely a professional sport. Rationing only ended in Britain one year before the first European Cup began!

Undoubtedly, Real have been very successful, at least as successful as any other club, but all this carping on about the decima when five of their European Cups were won back-to-back in the 1950s grates with me a bit.

Go back and look at the 1955-56 European Cup. You can find the details on Wikipedia. For starters, there are no English clubs in it at all. Look at the list of clubs that are actually in it. AGF Aarhus, Voros Lobogo, Gwardia Warszawa, Saarbrucken, Djurgarden, Hibernian, Servette, Rot-Weiss Essen.

You cannot tell me that counts as much as a win today, or during the last 30-40 years.

Why do you think no team has ever won the Champions League back-to-back, but Real won five consecutive European Cups. Good heavens, that must have been some team! The reality is that there was no competition compared to today, and the European Cup was barely even established. This isn`t even a controversial opinion it`s just a historical fact.

How do you think Real managed to win five in a row, whereas winning two in a row hasn`t happened for decades? Because the sport was nothing compared to what it is today. For me it`s similar to the situation in tennis where the `Open era` is often spoken about. I wouldn`t say achievements before the Open era are completely discounted, but it`s acknowledged that they don`t count for as much. However, the commentators stated after the final was over that Real have now won twice as many European Cups as anyone apart from Milan, implying that they`re miles more successful than any other club in Europe.

But to me that is just a total joke because they won the first five European Cups at a time which you can`t even compare it to the modern competition. Real Madrid were in 8 of the first 11 European Cup finals, but we`re supposed to seriously compare it to today where it`s taken them nearly 15 years of hard to slog to make another final after winning their previous Champions League. For me, it`s a joke to say that the early competitions count for the same as the later ones.

Real are at least as successful as any other club. But if you go back thirty years then Milan have won 5 European Cups during this time, to Real`s 3. Or if you go back to the seventies, Bayern have won more, Liverpool have won more, Ajax have won more...it`s only if you include the first five European Cups that Real become this unequalled force.

Definitely they are one of Europe`s very biggest and arguably it`s most successful club, but it`s very hard for me personally to view their first European Cup win, in a competition featuring, as I said previously only 16 teams, among them AGF Aarhus, Voros Lobogo, Gwardia Warszawa, Saarbrucken, Djurgarden, Hibernian, Servette, Rot-Weiss Essen, as equal to a win in the modern European Cup or Champions League.

Great club though they undoubtedly are, you shouldn’t necessarily believe the hype.

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27/05/2014     © Frixo 2026