Real Madrid will meet Atlético Madrid in the Champions League Final in a battle between two clubs that share Spain's capital.
Atleti has a quarter of the budget of Real, but Diego Simeone has worked to not have his players view themselves as underdogs.
Atleti has intriguing nicknames. The club is the Colchoneros (“the mattress makers”) because its red and white striped jerseys are similar to the red and white stripes that once adorned wool mattresses in Spain. The club is also “el pupas,” which is a nickname given to a person who always has bad things happen to them.
“The supporters of Atlético like to justify everything by saying that they were condemned to suffer,” said Santiago Segurola, the former sports editor at El Pais who has now joined Marca and has long been one of Spain’s leading soccer analysts. “That attitude generates two things: excuses to justify setbacks and also a certain masochistic pleasure when something bad does happen. It’s, ‘We are like this, We are destined to lose. It’s our identity.”’
“And this is what has changed, and Simeone is very important in this because Simeone always views the team with optimism,” he said, “and has never used the term ‘pupas.’ Never.”