Having opened its doors in the very heart of Madrid in 2023, Legends: The home of football has become a popular attraction for visitors to the Spanish capital.
Situated just a few metres from Puerta del Sol, the beating heart of Madrid, Legends has generated rave reviews and boasts an impressive 4.9 star average rating on Google.
LLE visited in December 2024 to see what the fuss was all about. This is our Legends: The home of football review.
What is Legends: The home of football?
Legends Madrid is a museum, set over seven different floors, which essentially aims to tell the story of the history of football.
While the space is large, that is clearly quite a bold undertaking, but the museum does a pretty good job of summarising the basic timeline of the sport’s growth in a fun and interactive fashion. It features a number of audiovisual “experience” sections from a 4D cinema to a games area, in between the main exhibits which you’re free to stroll through at your leisure, with the odd push in the right direction by their Spanish and sometimes English speaking staff.
It does dig a bit deeper into certain stories, from some of the great World Cup moments to lesser known tales. However, given the ambitious nature of the museum’s goal, there are clearly some very large chunks of football’s rich history that are merely glanced over, or not covered at all.
It’s also worth noting that, despite the extensive advertising of the Legends museum Madrid across LaLiga matches and its affiliation with the Spanish top flight, this is not specifically a LaLiga museum.
While there are small sections dedicated to the Spanish league and its clubs, this feels more like a FIFA or UEFA offering, with a much larger emphasis on the history of the World Cup and other international tournaments, while continental club competitions are also featured heavily.
Legends: The home of football tickets
Tickets can be bought online via the official Legends website and downloaded to your phone. You need to indicate the time of your visit, although you can also buy them directly at the museum on the day, subject to availability.
Entry usually costs €23 for adults and €15 for children (aged 7-13), with some reductions also on offer for families, youth card holders, people with disabilities, and those over 65.
There are frequent reductions in the prices though, so look out for those at the time of your visit. For example, the Legends discount code “LALIGA50” worked for a 50% reduction at the time of our visit, while anyone visiting over Christmas and throughout January 2025 can take advantage of a 20% promo (automatically applied when you buy tickets).
What to expect from a visit
While tours are not guided, there are staff located throughout the building and the immersive experiences run at timed intervals at different points in the museum. You’ll typically pass through the exhibits and experiences with the other people who begin at the same time as you.
The visit begins with a brief film (in Spanish, but subtitled in English), welcoming you to the museum and offering a rapid history lesson as to the origins of football. You’ll then get the opportunity to have your picture taken with a replica of the Ballon d’Or, with other photo opps to come later on, including one with the Champions League trophy.
Head upstairs, and the first immersive experience takes you inside some of football’s most iconic stadiums from Wembley to La Bombonera.
You then get the chance to roam around a number of different rooms, mostly showcasing football jerseys from players in different competitions around the world, from the early days of the beautiful game, right up to the modern day.
While there’s not a great deal of additional information, besides the name of the player, and date of the game, it’s all very nicely presented and some of the all-time legends and their jerseys are featured.
The next experience takes you to Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup final, with video footage and insight from the likes of Iker Casillas and Andres Iniesta taking you through Spain’s greatest football moment.
More jerseys and trophies await you next, with the European Cup/Champions League room perhaps the most impressive in the whole museum. It features footage of every single final and a jersey from every winning team, all the way from the first European Cup in 1956 to the present day.
The Copa Libertadores gets a similar treatment, with some cracking South American jerseys to browse, while you wait for your next experience – an impressive, if somewhat bumpy 4D trip down World Cup memory lane. Those prone to motion sickness might want to give this one a miss.
That’s the prelude for the next floor which is dedicated to both the men’s and women’s World Cups, again with footage, jerseys and results from every tournament.
The next floor up, has a comfortable room where you can sit down and listen to a slightly random collection of football stories, from Argentina boss Carlos Bilardo using scissors to punch holes in his team’s jerseys at the 1986 World Cup, to the game of football played between British and German soldiers during the Christmas truce of World War I.
You’ll then be ushered into a lift and delivered to the bottom floor – a den of VR and football gaming experiences that may appeal more to younger visitors than older ones.
The whole visit takes about two hours and ends in the Legends official shop which sells old jerseys and a range of football memorabilia.
LaLiga TwentyNine’s legends bar
From the ground floor shop, you do have the option of taking the lift back up to the very top floor and the LaLiga TwentyNine’s legends bar. This is definitely worth doing just for the spectacular, birds eye view of Puerta del Sol and the central streets of Madrid from a surprisingly empty outdoor terrace.
If the weather’s good, and it normally is in Spain’s largest city, it’s well worth having a drink or even a meal on the terrace, or alternatively inside the bar which has many screens playing the latest football action.
You don’t need to go to the museum, to go to the bar though, so you can always come back another time.
Legends: The home of football review – Verdict
Overall, Legends: The home of football feels like an attraction that has something to offer football fans of all ages. Anyone on a football trip to Madrid, particularly those with children, would almost certainly enjoy their time in the museum.
It’s also certainly a must visit for football kit aficionados, with a seriously impressive collection featuring some of the most iconic club and international strips from throughout the ages.
The museum’s attempt to cater to everyone and summarise the entire history of football under one roof, may leave some visitors somewhat disappointed however. This is not a niche museum, and if you’re specifically keen on learning more about Spanish football and its origins, you may find the many club museums in this country to be more informative and interesting.
Big fans of LaLiga, or in truth anyone with a really deep love and knowledge of football in general, may leave feeling as though they haven’t particularly learnt anything new, but that’s not to say they’d necessarily regret visiting.
It’s a very visual, modern museum experience and there has clearly been a significant amount of money placed into building the collection and attempting to turn this into one of the world’s biggest and most interactive football museums.
