Who is a Madridista? Hala Madrid, peñas and Bangladesh's Madridistas

A Madridista is a Real Madrid supporter. You don't need to live in Madrid or have seen the Bernabéu. If you stay up until 3am for a Champions League night, you're one.

Where the word comes from

Madridista is Spanish: Madrid plus -ista, the ending Spanish uses for a follower of something. Say it "ma-dree-DEES-ta". In Spanish it works two ways. As a noun it means a fan, but also a player or anyone who works for the club. As an adjective it means "of Real Madrid", so a Madrid win is una victoria madridista. You won't find it in the Royal Spanish Academy's dictionary, but Spanish sports pages use it every day.

The feeling itself has its own word: madridismo, being a Madridista. Spanish media talk about el madridismo the way we'd say "the Madrid fanbase".

Blancos, merengues, vikingos

Madridistas answer to other names too:

• Los Blancos, "the whites", after the all-white kit.

• Los Merengues, after the white meringue. Spanish radio commentator Matías Prats Cañete made the name popular in his match commentary.

• Los Vikingos, "the Vikings". There are two stories. The older one: after Real Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7–3 in the 1960 European Cup final, The Times of London wrote on 19 May 1960 that Real roamed Europe the way the Vikings once did. The other links the name to the Germans and Danes the club signed in the 1970s.

Socio, Madridista member, peña

You don't need any card to be a Madridista. But there are official ways to belong:

• A socio is a member-owner. Real Madrid isn't owned by a company or a billionaire. It belongs to its more than 90,000 socios, and has since it was founded in 1902. The socios elect the club's president.

• A Madridista member has joined the club's own fan membership at madridistas.com. The basic tier is free and is simply called "Madridista". Paid Premium, Platinum and Junior tiers add perks. The club named it after the fans themselves.

• A peña is an official supporters' club. More on those below.

Hala Madrid

Hala Madrid means "Come on, Madrid!" The Royal Spanish Academy's dictionary lists ¡hala! as an interjection used to cheer someone on or hurry them up. It can also be spelled ala: the H is silent, so it sounds like "Ala Madrid".

The words go back a long way. The club's first anthem, ¡Hala Madrid!, was written for its 50th anniversary in 1952 and sung by José de Aguilar. The full chant, "Hala Madrid y nada más", adds "and nothing more". That's also the name of the newer anthem the squad recorded after winning La Décima, the club's tenth European Cup. It was released on 25 May 2014 and written by RedOne and Manuel Jabois.

Peñas

A peña is an official Real Madrid supporters' club. In Spanish the word means a group of friends who share an interest. Real Madrid's 2024–25 annual report counts 2,521 peñas: 2,262 in Spain and 259 in 96 other countries. Peña Madridista Bangladesh is one of them.

How Peña Madridista Bangladesh began

In 2011, Bangladesh's Real Madrid fans were scattered across general football groups on Facebook, where Madrid and Barça fans argued every day. On 11 June 2011, Anik Dev opened a group just for Madrid fans, called "Madridista™". The first members went looking for other Madrid fans one by one and added them.

The first meetup came on 20 January 2012 in Dhanmondi. Seven or eight people turned up.

Then Real Madrid won La Liga 2011–12. On 8 June 2012 the group booked Boomers Cafe on Bailey Road to celebrate. The organisers expected 15 to 20 people. More than 30 came, many of them members nobody had met before, each paying the registration fee to be in the room. The photo at the top of this page was taken on the steps that day.

From a Facebook group to an official peña

Getting Real Madrid's recognition took eight and a half years and several failed attempts. On 26 December 2019, Real Madrid recognised the group as an official peña: the first official Real Madrid peña in Bangladesh. The letter, signed by the club's Director of Peñas, reached Dhaka on 14 January 2020. You can find us on Real Madrid's own fan-club page for Bangladesh.

Watching together at 3am

Real Madrid's big nights end at 3 or 4am in Bangladesh. We watch them together anyway. Our records show 164 people at the Dhaka screening of the 2016 Champions League final, and 114 for the 2022 final.

If you've ever celebrated a Madrid goal alone in a dark room so you wouldn't wake the house, there are people in Bangladesh who know exactly how that feels.

Where to find us

• Kick-off times in Bangladesh time: Fixtures

• Screenings and get-togethers: Events

• The full story of Peña Madridista Bangladesh: About us

• Membership opens once a year. The next window is March 2027: Memberships

¡Hala Madrid y nada más!