Football clubs have existed since the late 1800s; interestingly, many of them are still around today, either in their original name and form or with some varying degrees of rebranding and changes in name and color.
Football clubs were founded by students, workers, and communities in the early days. Some are created by foreigners who are far from home and miss their home clubs and thus create something similar to what they love.
In this article, we will look at the most popular soccer clubs that start with the letter A and a bit of the history behind them.
1. Arsenal (England)
Arsenal was founded in 1893; its logo is a gun that is similar to what is found in an Arsenal.
However, the club got its name from its founding members, who worked at an ammunition factory in Woolwich named Arsenal munitions factory.
The club bore Royal Arsenal from its first game before changing to Woolwich Arsenal in 1891, and in 1912, they changed to Arsenal after moving to Highbury.
They are one of the best soccer teams in London.
The Gunners, whose home colors are red and white and based at Emirates Stadium, are one of the most successful sides in England and hold rivalries with many other clubs in London.
2. AC Milan (Italy)
AC Milan is short for Associazione Calcio Milan, and they are sometimes simply called Milan, founded in 1899 in Italy by an English man Herbert Kilpin.
They were founded as a cricket and football club from the beginning, and its official colors have been Red and Black.
They were the first to be founded between the two Milan clubs.
In fact, Inter Milan didn’t exist until 1908, when there was a disagreement in the hierarchy of the club, which led to the formation of Inter Milan.
The English background of the owners is the reason the names are stuck at Milan instead of Milano.
Former AC Milan players then became the president of Inter Milan, and both shared Lombardy before moving to the San Siro until now.
3. Atletico Madrid (Spain)
Club Atlético de Madrid came after Athletic Club, which was established in 1898, while Atletico Madrid was founded in 1903.
The owners initially saw the thin line of relationship between both clubs as Atletico as a youth branch of Athletic Club.
Atletico Madrid was founded as Athletic Club Sucursal de Madrid by three Basque students living in Madrid.
However, as the years went by, the club was referred to as Atlético Madrid at the international level.
Atleti is their nickname in Spain, and in the early years, they were joined by dissident Real Madrid fans and players to make them stronger.
Their Red and White stripes with Blue shorts were inspired by Athletic Club colors without the blue shorts, which came in from a complicated story we hope to tell soon.
4. Ajax (Netherlands)
Fully named Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, Ajax also goes by various names such as A.F.C. Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax.
According to reports, the club was first created with the same name in 1894, as the first attempt before the current one we know was established in 1900.
The club’s name was also linked to the Greek mythological legend Ajax.
True to that name, Ajax is one of the strongest clubs in the world and one of the most successful clubs ever and even has a pedigree as a multiple winners of the UEFA Champions League as well as the record winner of the Dutch league.
The Ajax team of 1971 to 1973 are regarded as one of the best soccer teams of all time.
5. Athletic Club (Spain)
Athletic Club is a Basque-based club side and was created in a complicated fashion as even though the club stated 1893 as its founding date, it existed in two different entities.
As Basque was a thriving city in terms of industrial activities and education, Basque workers from Britain and returning Bilbao students who went to school in England created the club years after arranging games between them.
They went with the English word Athletic plus Bilbao, although it is used interchangeably with the club over the years, so either Athletic Club or Athletic Bilbao is correct.
Due to the English workers in Basque and Bilbao frequently trading and visiting English areas such as Southampton, Portsmouth, and Sunderland, the team often played in half white and red plus blue shirts, which was initially similar to the Blackburn style.
However, they eventually switched to the red and white colors plus black shirts they use now.
This was because they were unable to obtain enough shirts in their usual color, but found an abundance of red and white striped shirts from Britain.
They have continued to use these colors, as they coincide with the cultural colors of Bilbao and even rhyme with them.
Athletic Bilbao and Southampton are one the few soccer clubs that are friends.
They are also one of the few football clubs with no foreign player policy.
6. Anderlecht (Belgium)
R.S.C. Anderlecht was founded by 12 football lovers at a café in 1908, and they immediately showed they would dominate Belgian football.
The club is based in the Brussels capital region and remains Belgium’s most successful club. Their home kit is purple or magenta, and a white away shirt.
7. Aston Villa (England)
Take it or leave, Aston Villa remains one of England’s biggest clubs from the European Cup era, having won two themselves.
The club is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, on this list, having been founded in 1874.
They play in claret and blue.
They are one of the three clubs to have founded the old football league and the new Premier League.
The team was founded by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth, which is now part of Birmingham.
Also, they were a big part of football’s move to professionalism in England.
8. Almeria (Spain)
Unlike many of the clubs on this list, Almeria didn’t enjoy continuity and consistency in identity, but they have managed to disappear and appear severally.
The club is based in Andalusia in, Spain, but the first football club in Almería was founded in 1909 as el Almería Foot-Ball Club.
The predecessor to the current UD Almeria is the A.D. Almería, a team that played in La Liga between 1979–81 but disappeared in 1982.
9. Al Ahly (Egypt)
Al Ahly Sporting Club recently won their 118th title, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the idea raised by Omar Lotfy, who was a student at the Egyptian Law School during his presidency of the High School Students Club.
Al Ahly became a club in 1907 and became a place for the Cairo Student Union to gather.
Interestingly, Al Ahly are one of the top football clubs that have won the most trophies ever.
The club has continued to dominate Egyptian and African football and dorn red as their home shirt, similar to the Egyptian national team’s red color.
10. AZ Alkmaar
Alkmaar Zaanstreek is a club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district; its name identity is quite simplistically explained as the first letters from Alkmaar and Zaanstreek.
The club was founded on 10 May 1967 as AZ and has also been mildly successful in Dutch football with two Eredivisie wins.
Other Popular Soccer Clubs That Start With A include:
- AS Roma – Italy
- Atalanta BC – Italy
- Arsenal de Sarandi – Argentina
- Alianza Lima – Peru
- América de Cali – Colombia
- Al-Hilal FC – Saudi Arabia
- Al-Nassr FC – Saudi Arabia
- Al-Sadd SC – Qatar
- Al-Ain FC – United Arab Emirates
- Adelaide City FC – Australia
- América FC – Brazil
- Al-Ittihad FC – Saudi Arabia
- Al-Ahli SC – Saudi Arabia
- Al-Wahda FC – United Arab Emirates
- Al-Faisaly FC – Saudi Arabia
- Apollon Limassol FC – Cyprus
- AEK Athens FC – Greece
- Aris Thessaloniki FC – Greece
- Aalborg BK – Denmark
- AIK Fotboll – Sweden
- Atlanta United FC – United States.
- Amiens SC – France
- Angers SCO – France
- Arsenal Kyiv FC – Ukraine
- ASO Chlef – Algeria
- Asante Kotoko SC – Ghana
- Assyriska FF – Sweden
- Atletico Nacional – Colombia
- Atletico Paranaense – Brazil
- Auckland City FC – New Zealand
- Adelaide Blue Eagles – Australia
- Al Ahli Dubai FC – United Arab Emirates
- Al-Qadisiyah FC – Saudi Arabia
- Al-Shorta SC – Iraq
- Al-Talaba SC – Iraq
- Al-Tawoon FC – Saudi Arabia
- Alaves – Spain
- Alki Oroklini FC – Cyprus
- Altay SK – Turkey
- Amkar Perm – Russia.
