What records can Real Madrid break in the Super Cup against Atalanta?

It may sound like a tired cliché to say that today’s UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw has the potential to be a historic match - but it’s the truth. If Real Madrid defeat Atalanta at the Stadion Narodowy, there are several individual and collective records that will be broken or, at least, equalled.

Real Madrid’s most successful coach

Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti can win his 14th trophy in charge of Los Blancos - a tally that would take him alongside Miguel Muñoz as the club’s most decorated coach. It is a record that Muñoz has held for more than half a century. Between 1960 and 1972, the legendary former coach led Madrid to nine LaLigas, two European Cups, two domestic cups and one Intercontinental Cup. Across his two spells in the Bernabéu dugout, Ancelotti has so far won: three Champions Leagues, two LaLigas, two Copas del Rey, two Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and two Spanish Super Cups.

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Real Madrid’s most decorated player

While Ancelotti has the chance to go level with Muñoz, Luka Modric has the opportunity to move out on his own as Madrid’s most successful player. The Croat can claim his 27th winners’ medal since joining the club in 2012, moving one ahead of Nacho Fernández, with whom he currently shares the record. As with Muñoz’s historic silverware haul, Paco Gento’s long-unmatched tally of 24 trophies as a Madrid player had, until recent years, seemed unbeatable. However, first Marcelo, then Karim Benzema overtook the great winger (they have 25 each), before Nacho and Modric also surpassed Gento’s total. Modric can now further cement his legendary status at Madrid, in a season with six more trophies available to Los Merengues.

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The Super Cup’s most successful club

Real Madrid are the European Cup/Champions League’s most decorated club, with a haul of 15 titles that is more than twice as large as their nearest challenger, AC Milan. But Madrid ‘only’ have five Super Cups to their name, the same amount as Milan and Barcelona. If they win their sixth tonight, Los Blancos will overtake the Rossoneri and the Blaugrana as the Super Cup’s outright most-successful team.

To explain why Madrid have so many fewer Super Cups than continental crowns, you have to go back to the mid-to-late 20th century. Madrid’s first six European titles were won in the period between 1956 and 1966, when the Super Cup did not yet exist; its first official edition wasn’t held until the 1973/74 season. And, while the Europa League winner now joins the European champion in the Super Cup, that wasn’t the case when Madrid won the Europa League’s forerunner, the UEFA Cup, in 1985 and 1986. At that point, the holder of the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup, a tournament Madrid never won, was given the Super Cup’s second spot.

All of which meant that Madrid did not make their debut in the Super Cup until after winning their seventh European Cup in 1998. They lost the fixture to Chelsea that year, and to Galatasaray in 2000. The Spaniards’ first Super Cup win came in 2002, when Vicente del Bosque’s side beat Feyenoord.

The Super Cup’s most successful players

Modric and Dani Carvajal can become the first players in the history of the Super Cup to win it on five occasions, having already tasted victory in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2022. Their current tally of four leaves them level with former Madrid team-mates Benzema and Toni Kroos, as well as Dani Alves and Paolo Maldini.

Super Cup’s most decorated coach

Ancelotti finds himself in the same situation as Modric and Carvajal. Triumph in Warsaw would earn the Italian a record fifth career Super Cup, breaking the tie he’s presently in with Pep Guardiola. Ancelotti won two Super Cups with Milan in 2003 and 2007, before adding two more with Madrid in 2014 and 2022. Ancelotti and Guardiola are also two of just five individuals who have lifted the Super Cup both as a player and as a coach. The other three are Diego Simeone, Luis Enrique and Zinedine Zidane.