Real Madrid C.F.

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal maˈðɾið ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol]; Royal Madrid Football Club), commonly known as Real Madrid, or simply as Real, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain.

Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the team has traditionally worn a white home kit since inception. The word Real is Spanish for Royal and was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem. The team has played its home matches in the 81,044-capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in downtown Madrid since 1947. Unlike most European sporting entities, Real Madrid's members (socios) have owned and operated the club throughout its history.

The club is the most valuable sports team in the world, worth €2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) and the world's highest-earning football club for 2013–14, with an annual revenue of €549.5 million. The club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world. Real Madrid is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division, along with Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona. The club holds many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and the El Derbi madrileño with Atlético Madrid.

Luka Modrić

Luka Modrić (Croatian pronunciation: [lûːka mǒːdrit͡ɕ]; born 9 September 1985) is a Croatian footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Croatia national team. Modrić plays mainly as a central midfielder but can also play as an attacking and defensive midfielder.

After showing promise with his hometown club Zadar's youth team, Modrić was signed by Dinamo Zagreb in 2002. His professional career began with spells on loan to Zrinjski Mostar and Inter Zaprešić. While he was playing for Dinamo Zagreb, they won three consecutive league titles and three domestic cups; with Modrić named Prva HNL "Player of the Year" in 2007. In 2008, he moved to English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, before moving to Real Madrid in mid-2012. In his second season at Real Madrid, the team won the UEFA Champions League.

Modrić made his debut as a Croatian international player against Argentina in March 2006; he has since participated in four major tournaments; the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2008 and 2012. He scored his first international goal in a friendly match against Italy, and was included in the UEFA "Team of the Tournament" at the Euro 2008, becoming only the second Croatian to ever achieve this honour. Modrić became the first Croatian player to be included in the FIFA World XI.

Madrid

Madrid (/məˈdrɪd/, Spanish: [maˈðɾid], locally: [maˈðɾiθ, -ˈðɾi]) is a south-western European city, the capital of Spain, and the largest municipality of the Community of Madrid. The population of the city is almost 3.2 million with a metropolitan area population of around 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-largest in the European Union after London and Paris. The city spans a total of 604.3 km² (233.3 sq mi).

The city is located on the Manzanares River in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic and cultural centre of Spain. The current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid.

Luis Suárez

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (American Spanish: [ˈlwis ˈswaɾes]; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Barcelona and the Uruguay national team as a striker. In July 2014, he moved from Liverpool to Barcelona for a fee reported by the English press in the region of £75 million (€94 million), while Barcelona claim a fee of £65 million (€81 million), making him the third-most expensive player in football history. The transfer took place after he had won the European Golden Shoe in the previous season with Liverpool. Suárez is widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the world. In October 2015, he scored his 300th senior career goal for club and country.

Suárez began his career as a youth player for Nacional in 2003. He signed for Groningen in the Netherlands in 2006 and transferred to Ajax in 2007. In 2010 he helped Ajax win the KNVB Cup while becoming the league's top scorer with 35 goals in 33 games. He was also named Dutch Footballer of the Year, scoring 49 goals in all competitions. In the 2010–11 season, he scored his 100th Ajax goal, joining a group of players which include Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp. In January 2011, Suárez transferred to English Premier League club Liverpool for €26.5 million (£22.8 million). In February 2012, Suárez won the Football League Cup with the club. In April 2014, he was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. As the Premier League's top scorer with 31 goals he won the Premier League Golden Boot, and shared the European Golden Shoe with Cristiano Ronaldo. In his first season at Barcelona, Suárez starred alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar, an attacking trio dubbed MSN (Messi, Suárez, Neymar), and helped the club win the continental treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

Barcelona

Barcelona (/bɑːrsəˈloʊnə/, Catalan: [bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish: [barθeˈlona]) is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain and Spain's second most populated city, with a population of 1.6 million within its administrative limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the seventh-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area, Berlin and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 ft) high.

Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economical and administrative center of this Crown and the capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural center and a major tourist destination. Particularly renowned are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona. The city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments.