Real Madrid CF's 1927 tour of the Americas

**Real Madrid's tour of the Americas in 1927** was an exhibition tour by Spanish football club Real Madrid. It was one of the first exhibition tours to be played in two continents, being North and South America.

## Background

Since 1904, British football clubs had done tours of South America. These tours mainly saw teams play in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In September 1914, Italian club Torino became the first non-British team to do an exhibition tour of South America. The first Spanish team to do a tour of South America was made up of players from teams in Gipuzkoa, including from Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club, and Real Unión.

Real Madrid had done two exhibition tours before. Those tours were in Italy in 1920, and across Europe (specifically England, France, and Denmark) in 1925.

## The tour

The goal of the tour was to promote Spanish football in the Americas. At the time, this type of tour was seen as unusual, and created a lot of expectation around it.

The team left Barcelona on the SS Giulio Cesare in mid-June. The team spent 18 days at sea, before arriving in Argentina. During the journey, they encountered a storm off the coast of Uruguay.

Real Madrid played their first match on 7 July, when they played a team made up of players from Buenos Aires. In total, Real Madrid played 16 matches during the tour. This included five in Argentina, one in Uruguay, two in Peru, one in Cuba, six in Mexico, and one in the United States. It is also reported the team travelled to Chile as well.

In the final match of the tour, they were supposed to face American Soccer League team Brooklyn Wanderers, but instead played Galicia SC. Before the match, the players were invited to a dinner at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. Only 5000 people attended the match on 24 September, as Real Madrid drew 1–1 with Galicia SC. One of the people that attended the match was former diplomat Rafael Casares y Gil, who was an ambassador of Spain to Romania between 1907 and 1908.

## Players

The team Real Madrid brought for the tour did not include Cándido Martínez and Juan Monjardín, who both played for them at the time. To make up for this, Real Madrid brought players from other clubs, including Travieso from Athletic Bilbao and José Maria Yermo from Arenas Club. Santiago Bernabéu, who had retired at the end of the 1926–27 season, also travelled with the team.

Two changes to the team were made during the tour. Before the match against Juventud Asturiana, the team were joined by Oliván and Félix Pérez, who stayed for the North American part of the tour. However, after the match against Real Club España, José Gurucharri and Manuel Vidal left the team to return to Europe.

### Squad

- <small>Source</small>

## After the tour

When Real Madrid returned to Spain, they started playing in the Torneo de Campeones, a competition with the six teams that had won the Copa del Rey by that point. This was the first attempt at making a professional football league in Spain, and helped to create La Liga. Because the team had been away on the tour, Real Madrid were fined 1000 pesetas for missing some of the competition's first matches.

This tour would be the last time Real Madrid played Club América until 2010, 83 years later.

## Other websites

- RSSSF