Football
How Many La Liga Titles Has Real Madrid Won?
Real Madrid are the “Kings of Europe” for a reason. They have won the most UEFA Champions League titles, but how many La Liga titles have Real Madrid won?
SportsBoom delved into the record books to examine how many La Liga titles Real Madrid have won. La Liga is the top-flight football league in Spain: the Primera División. Real Madrid have won La Liga thirty-six times, the most by any Spanish club. La Liga is one of the most popular football leagues in the world, the second-most-watched after the English Premier League.
Since the turn of the century, Spain has been a powerhouse in world football. La Liga teams dominate European and world competitions. Spain holds the 2024 UEFA European Championship. They are the 2024 Olympic champions. They added these two titles to their 2023 UEFA Nations League triumph. Success runs throughout.
Spain is the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2024 Women’s Nations League champions. The men’s and women’s age group teams won the UEFA Under-19 European Championships. Real Madrid has not only won the most La Liga trophies, but they are most decorated club in European and Spanish football. Barcelona is not far behind its arch-rivals.
Real Madrid Major Domestic Honours
Domestic Competition | Titles | Runners-up |
La Liga Championship | 36 | 25 |
Copa del Rey | 20 | 20 |
Supercoppa de España | 13 | 6 |
Copa de la Liga | 1 | 1 |
Copa Eva Duarte | 1 | 0 |
Real Madrid: A History of Success
Real Madrid is the best and most successful club in Europe and Spain. They have won a record seventy-one domestic titles and thirty-four European trophies. Los Blancos were founding members of La Liga in 1929 and have never been relegated during the ninety-five years of competition.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) ranks Real Madrid first all-time in their European football rankings list. The “Kings of Europe” have won fifteen UEFA Champions League titles, six UEFA Super Cups and five FIFA Club World Cups. Los Merengues have won most La Liga titles and are the 2023/24 reigning Spanish, European, and 2024 UEFA Super Cup champions.
Real Madrid Major Continental Honours
Domestic Competition | Titles | Runners-up |
UEFA Champions League | 15 | 3 |
UEFA Cup / Europa League | 2 | 0 |
UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup | 0 | 2 |
UEFA Super Cup | 6 | 3 |
Latin Cup | 2 | 0 |
Real Madrid has not lost a European final since Liverpool beat them 1-0 to lift the European Cup in 1981. They have finished either first or second sixty-one times in ninety-five La Liga campaigns. Moreover, the club has won seventy-one domestic honours and thirty-four European and world championships. Their most recent European success was the 2024 UEFA Super Cup, their one-hundred-and-second major trophy.
El Clásico: Real Madrid versus Barcelona
El Clásico has dominated Spanish football for a century. Barcelona have won the second-most La Liga titles, winning twenty-seven championships. The Catalans have been runners-up twenty-five times. Real Madrid finished second twenty-five times, and Barcelona twenty-eight times in La Liga.
Since the turn of the century, Madrid (9) and Barcelona (11) have won twenty of the twenty-four La Liga titles. They have collectively won eighty-seven of the ninety-five Primera División championships and fifty-one of the hundred-and-twenty-one Copa del Rey titles. The two El Clásico teams hoard trophies, including fourteen Champions League titles since the early nineties. Madrid won two UEFA Cups, while Barca won three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup titles. The Fairs Cup was the precursor to the UEFA Cup, which became the UEFA Europa League.
It is not surprising that El Clásico has produced the most Ballon d’Or winners. Both clubs have twelve Golden Ball winners. Eight players share the twelve awards at Madrid, while six Barcelona footballers have held the most converted individual award. Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer of all time, has eight Ballon d’Or awards.
Real Madrid Major World Honours
Domestic Competition | Titles | Runners-up |
FIFA Club World Cup | 5 | 0 |
Intercontinental Cup | 3 | 2 |
Ibero-American Cup | 1 | 0 |
Real Madrid’s Galácticos
Florentino Pérez, the infamous Real Madrid president, implemented the policy of signing superstar players called Galácticos. Pérez bought Luís Figo from bitter rivals Barcelona, setting the blue-touch paper alight. His best Galacticos signing was Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.
Such was the bitterness between the clubs that United manager Sir Alex Ferguson famously said he would not sell Real Madrid a virus. But there was nothing Ferguson could do. Ronaldo left Manchester for Madrid a year later. Ronaldo would battle Messi for the Ballon d’Or and the title of “world’s best player” for a decade.
Pérez’s time at Madrid has been embroiled in turmoil. However, he brought instant and sustained success to the club. Madrid has won seven La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles and five FIFA Club World Cups under his stewardship. The silverware has flowed as the Galácticos come and go.
Ronaldo won four Golden Balls (and finished second six times) at Madrid. He scored 311 goals (a club record) La Liga goals in 292 matches. He is the club’s top-scorer, netting 450 goals in 438 games. It is not surprising that Ronaldo is the highest scorer in football history.
The Portuguese hold the record for most goals for Madrid in a season, scoring 48 times in 2014/15. He is their greatest-ever player. The newest – but least surprising – Galáctico is the 2018 World Cup winner, Kylian Mbappé. Mbappé scored on debut in Madrid’s 2-0 European Super Cup win against Atalanta.
Pérez is not afraid to splash the cash. The former Paris Saint-Germain forward commands an expensive salary. Mbappé was the highest-paid player in the 2023/24 Champions League campaign. He was signed to win trophies. His performance in the Super Cup victory bodes well for Los Blancos.
Kaylan Geekie is a sports fanatic. He attended Durban High School before moving to Scotland, where he lived for 15 years. During his time in the United Kingdom, Kaylan graduated with a first-class BA Honours Degree in Sports Journalism at the University of the West of Scotland. Kaylan worked for nine years as the Match-Day Editor of SuperXV.com, reporting on Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship, the 2015 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2017 British & Irish Lions series for the website.