Logo Evolution of Biggest Football Clubs in the world

In today’s corporate world, a logo means almost everything for any company. Even in the footballing world, a logo is vital for establishing club’s identity, promoting its philosophy and to give an extra boost to the club’s financial aspects. A logo or crest, if designed efficiently, can convey its uniqueness to the people and can attract fans, which inevitably promotes the company (club) on the higher level. Today, we will introduce you to some of the world’s finest football clubs in Europe and their quest of finding the perfect logo so far.

Associazione Calcio Milan

The most significant element in the AC Milan crest is the Red Cross on a white background popularly known as St George’s Cross, which is an essential part of the club’s crest. The club crest has mostly been oval shape with some exceptions.

The current and the most famous AC Milan logo consist of St. George’s cross on one side and club colors on the other. ACM initials are entitled at the top, while 1899, the year of its birth, on the bottom. The star was awarded after winning 10 league titles, in 1979.

Arsenal F.C

In 1888, the club adopted its first crest after its initial establishment in 1886. The crest was largely based on the coat of arms of the Borough of Woolwich and it remains active until 1913. In 1949, Arsenal introduced ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ printed on the crest.

A Latin word means ‘victory grows out of harmony’, which gained major popularity back in the days. In 2002, with a new stadium on the horizon club they decided to introduce a new crest, which is now a familiar logo among millions of football lovers.

Read: 20 Famous Logos With Their Hidden Meaning

Atletico Madrid

Atletico de Madrid started their journey in blue and white jersey in 1903, but soon changed to current red and white strips by 1911. Before 1917, the crest had club initials only with different backgrounds, but later on, the club decided to represent the Coat of arms of Madrid, alongside their jersey strip colors, as their club identity.

In 1939, club used the Royal Spanish crown with simple variations. In 1947, they roll back to their 1932 crest, which remained till date.

BVB Dortmund

BVB on the crest is synonym for Ballspiel- Verein Borussia, the clubs founding name in 1909; 09 is the remainder of the year. Also known by the name of yellow wall, Borussia Dortmund is the third largest sports club by membership in German top-tier football league system, Bundesliga. During the 117 years of club history, the yellow crest of club Borussia did never go through any series of major changes apart from 1964 and 1976.

F.C Barcelona

During the initial years from 1899, the club wore the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona till 1910. Later, a decision was made that the club should have its own differentiated crest. The finalized crest was a bowl-shaped design divided into two sections, upper and lower. The two upper quarters contain the St George Cross and the red and yellow bars as symbols of Barcelona and Catalonia. The club initials FCB appear on a strip across the centre and right below are the Barca colours and a football.

Chelsea F.C

The first publicized Chelsea logo featured one of the famous Chelsea Pensioners that gave rise to the club’s initial name. In 1952, F.C. Chelsea was handed a new crest to go with the new nickname “The Blues”. The following year, the famous Chelsea crest was born.

The design of this crest was inspired by the civic coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea. The lion was taken from coats Arms of Earl Cadogan, president of the club and Viscount Chelsea. The ‘staff’ in the hands of lion is that of Abbot of Westminster whose jurisdiction extended over Chelsea.

Real Madrid

The first Real Madrid crest of 1902 had only ‘MCF’ (Madrid Club de Futbol) initials interlacing in dark blue color. The interlacing of the MCF letters was changed in 1908 to a more streamlined form of lettering which appeared in a circle. The next noticeable change was in 1920, when King Alfonso XIII granted the club his royal patronage and Madrid Club de Futbol became Real Madrid. After becoming a royal club, Real Madrid added a royal crown to the club’s Crest.

In the wake of 1930, the crown and the title “Real” were overthrown from the crest because of political changes in Madrid. Then, under Jose Castilo, a dark mulberry band was added across the middle of the Madrid Club de Futbol. However, after 10 years, in 1941, Real Madrid restored the Royal Crown into their logo while keeping the mulberry stripe of Castilo.

F.C Bayern Munchen

Bayern Munich is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and popular football team in the world. Their age-old crest also shares the same respect to the club. The team’s first popular logo is composed of the stylized emblem featured “F, C, B, M”. In 1954, a simpler version was adopted. The current version of the crest consists of a circular design, the club’s name on the outskirts and inspired official flag of the state of Bavaria in the core, which has been in the logo since 1961.

Manchester United

The Manchester United crest as we saw today is a result of many series of changes on their initial crest of Manchester City Coat of Arms. Things started with Sir Matt Busby, when he adopted the ship and the shield from the Manchester City Coat of Arms in the club’s new crest. By the late 1960s, the club held a new nickname “The Red Devils” and soon in 1973 the strips in the shield was replaced with the devil’s emblem. In 1998, the “Football Club” was replaced by “united” on the bottom of the crest.

Liverpool F.C

The first ever Liverpool F.C crest was introduced in 1950, consisting of the Liver Bird. The first crest did not carry any club initials, but soon in 1955, a new modified version was adopted with L.F.C on it, leaving the earlier crest shape behind.

The major change took place in 1987, when Liverpool F.C adopted the 1950s shield shape and gave rise to a new crest. Then in 1992, on completing 100-club year, for the first time the words ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ appeared on the club’s crest. The twin flames appeared on the 1993 and current crest was added in honor of victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

Paris Saint-Germain F.C

The first club crest was publicized in 1970 featuring a ball and a sailing vessel, inspired from the coat and arms of Paris. But after splitting from the Paris FC in 1972, PSG adopted their famous crest having a red shape of the Eiffel tower, beneath the cradle of King Louis XIV and fleur de lys in white, right above the cradle.

Then in 1992, the Eiffel tower was replaced with the simple initials PSG written on it.The current crest has PARIS written in big and bold letters in the bigger circle, with the historic red shaped Eiffel tower and the fleur de lys in smaller one in the middle.

AFC Ajax

The first club crest was founded in 1900 with just a picture of an Ajax player playing football. The logo was again changed when the Dutch giants got promoted for the first time in 1911. In 1928, the club introduced the Greek mythological hero ‘Aias’ on their crest.

The crest was once again changed in 1990 into what we see it today. One fascinating fact about the crest is that the ‘Aias’ face is drawn with only 11 lines of different shape and size to symbolize the playing 11 of the football team.

F.C. Internazionale Milano

The first Intermilan logo was created by one of its founding member Giorgio Muggiani with “FCIM” incorporated in 1908. Since then, there had been a series of changes in the crest, but the club’s initials remained there except in 1928, when inter was forced to change their logo because of then ruling Fascist Party.

During the late 1980’s, the club used biscione or serpente on their crest which is an important symbol for the city of Milan. The star was added to the crest after winning their 10th Scudetto under Helenio Herrera.

Juventus F.C.

The journey of Juventus in black and white started with John Savage, a team member who was asked for delivering a new jersey for the team. Eventually, he managed Notts County F.C inspired black and white striped shirts. From there the Turin based club used the black and white strips on their crest.

The current crest consists of vertical strips of black and white color, name of the club over golden curvature and a superimposed miniature Heraldic shield with the symbol of “Comune di Torino” (a Bull) printed on it.

FC Porto

The club’s first crest was created in 1910, consisted of an old blue football bearing the club’s initials. In 1922, the club produced their famous crest with some modification in the previous one.

It draws inspiration from city’s coat of arms consisting an image of Our Lady holding baby Jesus and flanked by two towers holding above a banner with the Latin words “Civitas Virginis” surrounded by the collar of the series of towers and Sword topped by a crown supporting a green dragon with a red banner inscribed with “Invicta” (Undefeated city).

F.C. Steaua Bucuresti and F.C. Dinamo Bucuresti

Steaua and Dinamo are the two most successful football clubs in Romania and are eternal enemies too. Steaua was founded in 1947 by the Royal Army and Dinamo by the ministry of external affairs in the then communist government in 1948.

Both the Club’s crest changed time to time, mostly because of political and military influence on the club. The Red star on both the club’s crest represents the communist regime. Dinamo had changed their crest several times in the history, but the most famous one is with the two red dogs, derived from the nickname given to the club when Nunweiller brothers played there.

FC Schalke 04

The club name is derived from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen where the club is situated. The 04 is the year of foundation of the German club. Their crest is simple since it only contains three letters S04.

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Manchester City F.C

Manchester City F.C adopted the Coat and arms of the City of Manchester as their first crest. Soon after that the club took only the striped shield and the sailing ship to form their next logo. The current club crest was adopted in 1997 as their previous one was ineligible for trademark registration for the club.

The eagle in the crest is an old heraldic symbol of the city of Manchester. The bottom of the badge bears the motto “Superbia in Proelio”, which means Pride in Battle. The above three stars are pure decorations.

Olympiacos F.C.

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The Greek giants adopted the laurel-crowned adolescent as their emblem, which symbolizes the Olympic Games winner. The crest underwent some minor changes through many years. Red and white were chosen as the colors of the crest; red for the passion and victory and white for the virtue and purity. The four stars represent forty league titles for Olympiacos F.C.