The Other Noisy Neighbors

Manchester United aren’t the only team dealing with a nearby nuisance. Just ask Real Madrid about Atlético.

- Andy Mitten

“Like a death.”

That’s how Diego Simeone described Atlético Madrid’s 2016 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid on penalties. Losing a second final to their neighbors in three years cut deeply. “After any death you must have a period of mourning,” the Argentine said, heading into 2016–17. “But that period is now over.”

Simply being in a position to reach the final of football’s greatest club competition, while simultaneously competing to win Spain’s La Liga against Real Madrid and Barcelona, was an incredible achievement. Since returning to Atlético’s aging Calderón in 2011, Simeone has done what many considered impossible: He has broken Spain’s Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly.

La Liga was dismissed as being like the Scottish League in the sun—an unfavorable comparison with Celtic and Rangers’ dominance before Rangers imploded. When Simeone—a 1996 double winner when Atlético had last won a trophy—arrived, the gap between Barcelona in second and Valencia in third was 30 points. In the previous two seasons, the gap between second and third was 25 and 21 points.