page_title: Atlético Madrid
section_title: Aguirre era (2006–2009)
hierarchical_section_title: Atlético Madrid / History / Aguirre era (2006–2009)
caption_attribution_description: For the group stages of the UEFA Champions League 2009/2010.
context_page_description: Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D., commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid in English or simply as Atlético or Atleti, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, that play in La Liga. The club play their home games at the Metropolitano Stadium, which has a capacity of 68,456.
  In terms of league titles won, Atlético Madrid are the third most successful club in Spanish football – behind Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona. Atlético have won La Liga on 10 occasions, including a league and cup double in 1996; the Copa del Rey on 10 occasions; two Supercopas de España, one
  Copa Presidente FEF and one Copa Eva Duarte; in Europe, they won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1962, were runners-up in 1963 and 1986, were Champions League runners-up in 1974, 2014 and 2016, won the Europa League in 2010, 2012 and 2018, and won the UEFA Super Cup in 2010, 2012 and 2018 as well as the 1974 Intercontinental Cup.
  Atlético's home kit is red and white vertical striped shirts, with blue shorts, and blue and red socks. This combination has been used since 1911.
context_section_description: In 2006, Atlético signed Portuguese midfielders Costinha and Maniche, as well as Argentine forward Sergio Agüero. In July 2007, Fernando Torres left the club for Liverpool for £26.5 million, while Luis García moved in the opposite direction at the same time in an unrelated transfer. The club also bought Uruguay international and former European Golden Boot/Pichichi winner Diego Forlán for roughly €21 million from Villarreal. Other additions included Portuguese winger Simão from Benfica and winger José Antonio Reyes for €12 million.
  In July 2007, the Atlético board reached an agreement with the City of Madrid to sell the land where their stadium is located and move the club to the City-owned Olympic Stadium. However, the new stadium will change hands in 2016 and be owned by the club. Madrid had applied to host the 2016 Olympic Games, losing out to Rio de Janeiro.
  The 2007–08 season proved to be the most successful season for the club in the past decade. The team reached the round of 32 in the UEFA Cup, where they were defeated by Bolton Wanderers. They also reached the quarter-final round of the Copa del Rey, where they were beaten by eventual champions Valencia. More significantly, the team finished the Liga season in fourth place, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since the 1996–97 season.
  On 3 February 2009, Javier Aguirre was dismissed from his post as manager after a poor start to the season, going without a win in six games. He later claimed that this was not accurate, and that he had left by mutual termination rather than through sacking. There was public outrage after his dismissal, many believing he was not the cause of Atlético's problems, namely player Diego Forlán. He backed his former manager and said that, "Dismissing Javier was the easy way out, but he was not the cause of our problems. The players are to blame because we have not been playing well and we have been committing a lot of errors." This led to the appointment of Abel Resino as Atlético's new manager.
  Atlético's success continued in the latter half of the season when they placed fourth once again in the league table, securing a position in the playoff round of the UEFA Champions League. Striker Diego Forlán was crowned with the Pichichi Trophy and also won the European Golden Shoe after scoring 32 goals for Atlético that season. Atlético saw this domestic success as an opportunity to reinforce their squad for the upcoming Champions League season. They replaced veteran goalkeeper Leo Franco with David de Gea from the youth ranks and signed promising youngster Sergio Asenjo from Real Valladolid. Atlético also purchased Real Betis defender and Spanish international Juanito on a free transfer. Despite pressure from big clubs to sell star players Agüero and Forlán, Atlético remained committed to keeping their strong attacking base in the hopes for a successful new season.
  The 2009–10 Atlético season, however, began poorly with many defeats and goals conceded. On 21 October, Atletico were hammered 4–0 by English club Chelsea in the Champions League group stage. This defeat led Atletico's management to announce that manager Abel Resino had to leave. After failing to sign Danish former footballer Michael Laudrup, Atlético Madrid made it official that the new manager for the rest of the season would be Quique Sánchez Flores.
caption: Diego Forlán scored 32 La Liga goals for Atlético in 2008–09, making him the top scorer in Spain and Europe.
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