THE MATTRESS MAKERS OF MADRID

Atletico Madrid originally played in blue and white, but by 1911, they converted to their current red and white stripes. The change may have been because red and white striped tops were the cheapest to make, being a popular combination used to make Spanish bed mattresses, from which the unused cloth was easily converted into football shirts.The discovery of a cheaper option probably persuaded them to change and influenced the Madrid club being known as Los Colchoneros ("The Mattress Makers" ). 

During the 1970s, they became known as Los Indios, allegedly due to the club signing several South American players. There are a number of counter theories which claim they were named so because their stadium is "camped" on the river bank, or because Los Indios (The Indians) were the traditional enemy of Los Blancos (The Whites), which is the nickname of the club's city rivals, Real Madrid.

Another account for this change of colours is that both Athletic Bilbao and Athletic Madrid used to buy Blackburn Rovers blue and white kits in England. Once in 1911, Juanito Elorduy, former player and member of the board of Atletic Madrid, went to England to buy kits for both teams. He did not find Blackburn Rovers kits, so bought Southampton F.C. red and white ones instead. Athletic Madrid adopted the red and white shirt but opted to keep Blackburn Rovers' blue shorts, leading to them also being known as Los Rojiblancos.

The club has had much success and one outstanding achievement was reaching the 1963 European Cup Winners Cup Final, but was thrashed by Tottenham Hotspur 5–1!

In April 2014 the All India Football Federation announced that Atletico Madrid has officially won the bid for the Indian Super League's Kolkata franchise due to held from September 2014 along with Indian cricketing legend, Sourav Ganguly and partners. The team is presently named ATLETICO DE MADRID KOLKATA and will sport the official club colours, of Los Rojiblancos.