LISBON, Portugal -- A boy, maybe seven or eight years old, is strapped into the back seat of a car. Dad is at the wheel, nervously tapping his finger.
"Dad?" asks the kid, with the kind of voice parents know well. It's the one that usually prefaces the kind of question only a child would ask. "Why are we Atletico fans?"
The father is struck dumb. Confusion spreads across his face. This is one question you can't really answer. The screen fades to black and words appear. "It's not easy to explain ... But it's something very, very big."
That's the iconic, award-winning commercial Atletico Madrid put out a few years back. And it encapsulates both the mystery of fandom and the nature of playing second fiddle in the same town. Contrast this with Real Madrid. Search for their ads on YouTube and most will be commercial tie-ups with various sponsors, rather than house commercials like Atletico's. Heck, they're Real Madrid. Some brands don't need to advertise.
When you do find one -- like this -- it could not be further away, in tone and message, from Atletico's. Rousing music, a parade of superstars and the final slogan, "Real Madrid don't just play football ... they inspire."
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That's fine. Actually, that's more than fine. That's important.
Contrast and identity are a big part of why we watch. Otherwise the Champions League final would simply be a slugfest between two antiseptic, uber-commercialized entities with interchangeable superstars. But clubs still stand for something. Certainly these two do, anyway.
Real Madrid are the 1-percenters. If the economist Thomas Piketty -- whose book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" is a New York Times bestseller -- wrote about football, he might present them as the landed, blue-blooded elites whose enormous accumulated capital perpetually generates increasing amounts of income and ever-growing inequality. And while it's tempting to present Atletico Madrid as the ultimate underdogs, a more accurate characterization might be that of the fallen bourgeoisie who tried to keep up with the elites with mortgages they couldn't afford, only to fall further and further behind as the system became increasingly skewed to the 1 percent. This is a club whose debt went beyond the half-billion-dollar mark last year, one who has had to rely on third-party ownership and "alternative financing" ("For sure in part ... Atletico was able to keep the best players through alternative financing by us," Nelio Lucas, chief executive of one such fund, Doyen, told The Times of London) and deep cost-cutting to remain even remotely competitive.
In that sense, it's a reflection of the modern game, also in terms of what will happen after the final, regardless of result. Win or lose, Real Madrid will reload, strengthening for next season in the perennial arms race among the elites. Atletico will likely say goodbye to Diego Costa, their best player this year, and possibly Koke, Diego Simeone and Thibaut Courtois (whom they don't actually even own, of course). One way or another, we'll witness history on Saturday night.
A win for Real Madrid would represent their 10th European Cup. It would mean they've won more than Manchester United, Juventus and Barcelona COMBINED. It would also be their fourth in the past two decades, suggesting that, more than most, they thrive in the modern, globalized football landscape.
They had the most expensive player in the world (Cristiano Ronaldo) and added a guy who cost even more (Gareth Bale). They have four world champions. They paid north of $15 million to get their second-to-last manager (Jose Mourinho, who had two Champions League crowns under his belt and had won league titles in three European countries), and, when that didn't work out, they replaced him with a guy who also won the big one twice and also won leagues in three different countries (Carlo Ancelotti).
It's plug and play.
An Atletico victory would represent the reverse. It would cap an unbelievable season and a historic Champions League/Liga double. But most of all it would show that money and capital are NOT a prerequisite if you have a squad capable of superhuman efforts and a manager capable of teasing such herculean feats out of them. All season long, Atletico have outfought and out-clawed, outworked and out-willed the opposition.
Saying they reflect Simeone -- a ferocious, all-action central midfielder during his days as a player -- is accurate, if a bit reductive. There is plenty of quality here too, it's just that it's far more blue-collar than the opposition. And, truth be told, intermittent too.
Because while the world raves over Costa today, until he was 23 he was seen by many as a gamble, prone to inconsistency and indiscipline. The likes of Arda Turan (who is doubtful for Saturday) and Adrian likewise had never tapped their talents with regularity. Koke is the exception, but then again he's just 22 and in only his second season as a starter. The rest are hard-hatted warriors, many of them -- like Miranda, Filipe Luis, Raul Garcia, Mario Suarez or even Gabi -- long underappreciated.
Adding to the spectacle are the subplots. Ancelotti could join Anfield immortal Bob Paisley as the only manager to win three European Cups. Ronaldo will take the stage in Lisbon where 10 years ago at the European championships he had his coming-out party but faltered at the final hurdle in this very stadium, the Estadio da Luz, as Portugal were sensationally upset by Greece (another distinctly blue-collar side). Simeone, on the other hand, is on the verge of winning his fifth trophy as Atletico boss (he already has a Liga crown, a Europa League, a European Super Cup and a Copa del Rey under his belt). This would make him the most successful Atleti manager ever ... despite the fact that he's been in charge for just over two and a half years. And then, for Atleti old-timers, there's a chance to address the heartbreak that took place exactly 40 years ago. It was May 15 in Brussels, Juan Carlos Lorenzo's team were taking on the Bayern Munich side of Uli Hoeness, Gerd Mueller, Paul Breitner and Franz Beckenbauer in the European Cup final. It was scoreless after 90 minutes and, in extra-time, with six minutes to go, Luis Aragones put Atletico ahead with a curling free kick. He was 36 years old; this was supposed to be his final game with the club. It would have been the ultimate walk-off goal.
Instead, in the dying seconds, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, the Bayern centre-back, strode up the pitch and smacked a hit-and-hope rocket that threaded its way through a mass of bodies and beat Miguel Reina (yes, Pepe's dad, small world, isn't it?) in the Atletico goal. Their soul destroyed, it went to a replay, as was the custom in those days. Bayern won 4-0, conquering the first of three consecutive European Cups. Atletico wilted and were left to wonder what might have been. Forty years later, a few months after Aragones' passing, they have a chance to atone.
Enjoy this. You will see history being made. And somewhere out there, little boys will get their answer about why they support who they support. If they and their dads are of the Real Madrid faith, it will be simple: "This is what we do. We win. More than anyone." And the little Atletico kid? Well, his dad will no longer be lost for words.
"Because we're Atleti. We don't win often. But when we do, it means so much more. And when we don't, it's still pretty special."