Winning the treble is seen as the ultimate feather in the cap for an elite footballing institution. Since the Champions League era began in 1992, only five teams have won the treble, which consists of winning the domestic league, domestic cup, and the most coveted prize of them all, the UCL.
Those clubs are Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Inter Milan. No Ligue 1 side has won the treble and only the Premier League has more than one treble winner.
Meanwhile, Barcelona and Bayern are the only clubs to have won multiple trebles in their histories, and it is this fact that Barcelona fans love holding over Real Madrid.
See, Real Madrid have never won the treble. Even though they have won the most Champions League titles in history, recently picking up their 15th in 2024, they have never won the Copa del Rey and LaLiga in the same season as the UCL.
Even if you go back before the Champions League was rebranded in 1992, that only adds historic powers outside the top five leagues – Celtic, Ajax, and PSV – on the list of all-time treble winners.
So why have Real Madrid, the most successful club in world football, never captured all three titles in a single dominant season? Let’s go beneath the surface to understand why that is.
The Copa del Rey is its own beast
It may seem counterintuitive, but Real Madrid have found the Copa del Rey to be the most difficult competition to win in their recent history. Whereas Los Merengues have conquered LaLiga 36 times in total and 11 times since 1992, they have only won the Spanish Cup 20 times in their history.
While 20 Copas del Rey seems like a good return, the achievement becomes less impressive when you realize that Barcelona have won the cup 31 times in their history compared to 27 LaLiga titles.
It’s not about Barcelona being a better cup team than Real Madrid either. Los Merengues have literally won three times as many Champions League titles, and that’s an objectively more difficult competition in terms of the level of opposition.
Except here’s the thing. The Copa del Rey isn’t as easy as it looks. Real Madrid have won the cup only four times since 1992 vs. Barca’s nine triumphs. Meanwhile, Real have taken home the UCL nine times compared to less than half that amount for the Blaugrana.
So wait a second, Real Madrid have won more than twice as many Champions League titles as Copas del Rey? They are literally more than twice as likely to win the most difficult competition in world football than they are to win their own domestic cup!
Part of that is because Real Madrid tend to bring their best when they face the very best, and that’s thanks to the mentality and level their players have to find that extra big of strength in waning moments or on the big stage. Cristiano Ronaldo is obviously a textbook example of that, but even role players like Lucas Vazquez and Rodrygo Goes share this unique aspect of the Madrid DNA.
Meanwhile, an early-round matchup against Alcoyano or yet another battle against Real Sociedad are less likely to provoke that same sense of urgency from Real Madrid; the Copa del Rey just isn’t as much of a priority, even if it is an implicit sense that leads to an intangible lack of urgency from the players.
Then there is the matter of Real Madrid having such a big target on their back in these matchups and facing smaller sides ready to go to war, sitting back in the lowest of blocks and frustrating Madrid into a late defeat after two hours of grueling football. Alcoyano is a textbook example of this.
In 2022/23, Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey in the same season they lost the Champions League and were humbled by Barcelona in LaLiga, so it goes to show you that a tournament against low blocks and assorted Spanish sides desperate to impress sometimes comes down to an element of luck.
Barcelona must be respected
As much as Real Madrid fans like to poke fun at Barcelona for using the Merengue club as their measuring stick in so many ways, even the most biased and fervent of Madridistas has to admit some level of respect for Barcelona.
That’s not only because Barca have won two trebles to Real’s zero and have a better Copa del Rey record, but it’s also because there isn’t a more difficult title battle historically than the one between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Although Real Madrid have won nine more league titles than their rivals to the east, that’s a pretty close margin, and it’s been a fairly back-and-forth battle over the last decade or so.
Even after the Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi eras, Barcelona and Real Madrid are still trading titles back and forth. Having to compete with Barcelona makes it harder for Real Madrid to go on a 10-year league title winning streak like Juventus or Bayern Munich, which, in turn, makes it even harder to win the treble.
Much of this piece has focused on the elusiveness of the Copa del Rey for Real Madrid, but with a competitor on a historical scale like Barcelona (only Bayern Munich and Madrid themselves have a bigger pedigree in world football), even taking home the league is quite difficult and an achievement in its own right.
Diego Simeone made Atletico Madrid dangerous
Although LaLiga doesn’t feature as many unique winners as Serie A, it’s a more difficult league with more clubs that excel in European football, such as Villarreal and Sevilla in the Europa League – and Barcelona have, of course, been a blue blood in European football, too.
But the thing is, it isn’t just a title race between Real Madrid and Barcelona, because with Atletico Madrid having won the title in 2020/21, LaLiga have a more recent track record of three distinct winners than any other top five league in Europe besides Serie A.
Atletico Madrid have become a power in Europe in their own right under Diego Simeone, reaching two Champions League Finals that they, by the way, lost to Real Madrid in clutch circumstances.
In total, Atleti have taken two LaLiga titles and one Copa del Rey off the table from Real Madrid and Barcelona since Simeone’s appointment as manager in the 2011/12 season.
Atleti used to be a joke for years in comparison to their crosstown rivals, but over the last 15 years, they have been a Champions League mainstay and one-time UCL title contender, in addition to a real threat to win LaLiga.
And now with Real Sociedad consistently reaching the Champions League and Girona making a title charge, the competition in LaLiga is actually getting stiffer. Though Sevilla have been poor these last two seasons, they were even in the title mix in the 2021/22 season when Real Madrid won the double.
Real Madrid prioritize the Champions League the most
This point goes back to the Copa del Rey and priorities. Real Madrid literally don’t play their best players in the Copa del Rey, and it’s to an extent even beyond what other clubs like, say, Premier League sides do with their players in the FA Cup.
Real Madrid have so many stars who would be among the best in LaLiga but don’t get minutes because the starters are all GOAT-tier players in their respective roles.
So the Copa del Rey becomes a time for an aging veteran like Marcelo or a secret star buried on the bench like Dani Ceballos to get minutes. However, those players do not have the best chemistry with each other or the most in-game sharpness – nevermind the fact that they are still only a fraction as good as a Luka Modric or a Vinicius Junior.
Naturally, when Real Madrid play at half-strength against a hungry Spanish side with everything to prove, they are going to find it difficult to win, say, all five or six of those games in a row, especially when things like extra time and penalties get factored in.
Real Madrid would rather accept a slip-up in the Copa del Rey than in the Champions League, and because the players mentally weigh the UCL so much more, they tend to be more likely to bring their “A” game in those matches anyway.
Of course, with the way I have been discussing the comparison between how Real Madrid view the Champions League and Copa del Rey, it’s important to note that as easy as Los Blancos make it look, winning the Champions League is insanely hard.
Winning it twice in the last three years, as the Merengues have done, is insane enough, but winning it three times in a row or four times in five years? That is unprecedented, especially in an increasingly competitive modern game. So yeah, winning the treble, in general, is very difficult because even the top clubs only win the Champions League every 10-20 years.
LaLiga takes a physical toll
LaLiga is one of the most physical leagues in world football. There are veteran defenders in LaLiga who have made a living off hurting their opponents, and whenever Real Madrid bring their superstars to town, these rugged defenders are licking their lips.
Playing 38 LaLiga fixtures against low blocks and dogged defenders is not easy by any means, and then adding more games on top of that in the cup only compounds to the fitness and injury issues.
It’s hard to sustain an elite level of play for the full season, and because the Copa del Rey final rounds, like the Champions League, occur during the business half of the season after about 20-30 tough LaLiga fixtures have been played, the mileage truly begins to add up.
Real Madrid go into some of these games with key starters missing due to injury or the need to rest, and once the match starts getting around the 80th minute mark, there are some Real Madrid fans who are more worried about a big injury before a Champions League night than they are about winning another Copa del Rey trophy.
That brings it all back to the last point, With how difficult it is to last in LaLiga with the brutal style of play and the way the likes of Vinicius Junior are targeted by defenders, it is only natural for Real Madrid to put the Copa del Rey on the backburner.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.