Santiago Bernabéu Yeste (1911-1928)

Santiago Bernabéu Yeste was born June 8 , 1895 in Almansa , province of Albacete , Spain and died June 2 , 1978 in Madrid . He was chairman of Real Madrid from 1943 to 1978. No other president kept the job for so long or led the club for so many titles as Bernabéu did.

Bernabéu first joined the club as player in 1912 . He retired from playing in 1927. In 1929 he joined the board of Real Madrid as secretary, job he would fulfill until 1935. In 1943 he was elected president, which he would remain until his death in 1978. As president of Real Madrid he is considered to have been one of the major forces behind the club's successes. He was responsible for the building of a large new stadium for the club in Chamartin. The stadium was finished in 1947 and renamed in 1953 in his honor: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu .

He was one of the creators of the European Cup, a competition which Real Madrid would dominate in its early stages thanks to the star players that Bernabéu had brought to the club. He died in 1978, while the World Cup was being played in Argentina . In his honor the FIFA decreed three days of mourning during the tournament. In 2002 he was posthumously awarded FIFA's Order of Merit.