The NFL will return to the Santiago Bernabéu this year

The NFL, the American football league, confirmed this Monday that Madrid and the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium will once again host a match in the Regular Phase of the competition next season after Real Madrid’s fiefdom hosted the duel between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders last November, and within a “multi-year” agreement between all parties.

The announcement was made official through a video on the official ‘Instragram’ account of NFL Spain, where emblematic places of the capital of Spain appear, along with a ‘We’re back’, and with Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger Vinícius Jr welcoming back to the event: “Welcome home friends of the NFL. See you at Bernabéu.”

The stadium of the 15-time European champion hosted the first game of the American league in Spain on November 16, a Dolphins-Commanders game that ended with a 19-16 victory for the former, who were playing at home, after extra time.

“The National Football League will return to Madrid, Spain, to play regular season games at the iconic Bernabéu, home of Real Madrid CF, under a multi-year agreement with the Madrid City Council and the Community of Madrid, beginning with the NFL regular season in 2026,” the league said in a statement.

Rafa De Los Santos, director of the NFL in Spain, stressed that “the ‘NFL Madrid Game 2025’ at the Bernabéu was a key moment for this sport in Spain” and that therefore they are “delighted to confirm” the return of the league “within a multi-year pact with the Madrid City Council, the Community of Madrid and Real Madrid CF.”

“This multi-year commitment to matches in Madrid – a world-class cultural and sporting destination – underlines our commitment to this market and allows us to continue connecting with fans throughout the year and invest long-term in initiatives such as ‘NFL Flag’ and the participation of young people from all over the country,” he added.

For his part, Emilio Butragueño, director of Institutional Relations of Real Madrid CF, assured that for the entity “it is an honor and a privilege” that the Santiago Bernabéu “will once again host the NFL spectacle.”

“We experienced a historic event a few months ago and this new agreement will allow the alliance between our club, the Community of Madrid, the city council and the NFL to continue strengthening the image of our capital and the Spain brand in the world. The transformation of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium represents a great boost for sport to continue being a link between millions of fans on all continents,” stressed the Madrid manager.

The NFL recalled that Spain is an important market for the league globally, with 11 million fans and that, “as part of a broader multi-year commitment to grow the sport at all levels in Spain”, it will also focus its efforts throughout the year “on the development throughout the territory” of the ‘NFL Flag’ program, focused on the non-contact modality of this sport and which will be Olympic in Los Angeles (United States) in 2028. ‘NFL Flag’ was launched in Spain in 2024 and is already reaching boys and girls in schools in Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza, with a future expansion planned in collaboration with the Spanish American Football Federation (FEFA).

Additionally, the Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Spain as part of the league’s Global Markets Program, an initiative that grants NFL clubs these rights in markets outside the United States to drive brand awareness and fandom through fan interaction, events and commercial opportunities.

The Madrid game joins the others already confirmed by the league itself for next season in Melbourne (Australia), with the Los Angeles Rams as the designated home team, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), at the Maracaná Stadium, in Munich (Germany), at the Allianz Arena of FC Bayern Munich, and three games in London. To date, 62 regular season games of the American NFL league have been played around the world with London, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dublin, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Toronto as host venues.