Color in the Real Sociedad football logo for free

About this drawing

The Real Sociedad logo has a beach vacation to thank for its crown. In the late 1800s Spain's royal family began spending summers in San Sebastian, on the Basque coast near France. Queen Maria Cristina made the city the place to be, and it quickly filled with grand hotels, seaside promenades and wealthy visitors from around Europe.

That stylish town is where the club was formed in 1909, with local athletes who had caught the soccer bug from Britain. The following year King Alfonso XIII, a regular summer guest, granted the royal title, which is what Real means here. Sociedad just means society, so the name works out to Royal Society, which sounds more like a science club than a soccer team.

The high point came in the early 1980s, when the team won back-to-back Spanish league titles with a roster made up almost entirely of players from the region. That was no small feat next to the budgets of Madrid and Barcelona. Developing local kids remains the club's calling card, and its training center at Zubieta is highly respected across Spain. Games are played at Anoeta, a stadium redone to bring the stands closer to the field. Visitors usually come for La Concha, a shell-shaped bay often ranked among the best city beaches in Europe, then stay for the food.

• soccer
• team crests
• spain
• basque country