A Weekend Hunting in Madrid 

For the first official Tour De Tat hunt of 2025, I wanted to see what the Spanish capital had to offer. 

Before setting off, I did quite a lot of research and planned to work out the best way to use my 72 hours in town. I always do a solid check on travel blogs, Google reviews and ask as many local people I know on social media for any tips about a city I might be heading to, but surprisingly, Madrid had very little information about what was in store apart from the legendary El Rastro Sunday flea market. 

I stumbled across a few Google reviews of three or four vintage shirt shops in Malasaña which is regarded as the vintage area of the capital city. All of these looked like they had regular opening times so that looked like a good starting point for when I touched down on Spanish soil. Another part of the plan was to link up with an old Insta mate, Noé who is one of Spain's OG vintage dealers and runs Almacenes López which was up until recently a physical shop based in Barcelona, before he moved back home to the capital to focus on starting his own independent screen printing company. 

Touching down late on Friday, I headed to the quieter outskirts to meet up with Noé and we both headed straight out for a couple of beers and some classic quick eat, bar tapas to kick off the Spanish trip properly. 

As Sunday was the mega flea day, I thought I wouldn’t put to much pressure on Saturdays hunt and just enjoy myself mooching about the city and visit some of the spots that I had marked down in advance from my Madrid homework. I caught the metro into the more central part of town towards the Plaza Mayor, which was once the center of Old Madrid. Around this area there is quite a lot of classic tourist trap shops, which might not be the most obvious of spots to visit but I can promise you these kind of shops are always worth a little poke around in major football cities. 

The first one I visited was called Hola Madrid and straight away my nosing about was rewarded with a a few glorious dead stock Real Madrid wallets adorned with three of the best Madridista’s from back in the day, Seedorf, Roberto Carlos and Mijatović. After heading into two or three more tourist shops in close proximity, I was already loaded up with some golden football trinkets. 

I asked one of the friendly shop owners about any Saturday flea’s happening in the city and he let me know that in one of the square where El Rastro takes place there is a smaller slimmed-down version, so I jumped straight on the bus and headed to the La Latina neighborhood. (I highly recommend buying a 10 trip top up travel card which costs €12.20 and is valid for use on the Metro and bus systems within Zone A.)

Twenty minutes later I arrived at Plaza Del Campillo Del Munro Nuevo where the small but perfectly formed flea was taking place spread around a sunny square. It didn’t take me long to get picking and dig up some heavyweight old school football key rings and an incredible pair of mini Adidas football boots before stopping for a quick pitstop to use some of my basic Spanish to grab some buttery churros and a coffee. 

Being a Crystal Palace fan, it was quite a big day as far as matches go and we had a tasty FA Cup quarter-final at Craven cottage lined up with the winner heading to Wembley. Even though it would encroach into valuable hunting time, I couldn’t resist the urge to find a spot to watch it. 

Another good tip if you’re on the go all day in a major European city is to use Irish pubs as a rest stop. Grab a beer, use the bathroom, charge your phone and, in this case, watch an English match. I looked online for Irish pubs in the city showing English football and although quite a few stated that they would be, there was only a couple that actually looked legit and one of those was James Joyce which is a stone's throw away from Plaza de las Cibeles and El Retiro park. 

Lucky enough for me, a few other Palace fans visiting Madrid the same idea and we claimed a corner of the bar to chat everything CPFC before watching one of the performances of the season unfold to take us into the semi-final and Wembley. 

Fully recharged in all ways possible, I headed up to check out Madrid’s vintage neighbourhood, Malasaña. The area is queer / student-friendly with the streets filled with coffee shops, cheap eats and of course, vintage clothing stores. There is also four of the biggest vintage football shirt shops in this area which are all located quite close to each other, so its quite easy to fit them all in a day.

I headed to Eldiez Football first, which was sadly closed, but I wasn’t too down about it as it had one of the most beautiful shop fronts that I have ever set eyes on. From the 80s inspired graphics and font work to the giant scorpion ball and bootleg Footix graffiti it was near perfect and I was kind of happy it was closed. 

 

I decided to take the twenty-minute journey through Malasaña on foot to Cami Clasica which has a couple of stores in the city, but the mothership is in the north of the neighborhood close to Tribunal metro station. The shop was incredibly well-stocked but on the higher side of my budget, so I decided to move on to another store which I was excited to visit - Kinigolshop. 

 

I had heard good things about this shop, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love a football store that caters for everyone and this was exactly that. There are shirts to fit all budgets and the friendly owner was happy to make deals if you were to buy more than one piece. I picked up a Real Madrid Adidas CLIMACOOL mid-00s tracksuit top and sweat for the bargain price of €70. I would definitely recommend going to check this store out on your own travels as there were many steals to be had.

I then moved on to check out Corner which is a recent new edition to Madrid's football shirt scene before heading home with a decent day one haul for an early night so I could be up early doors for what really brought me to this iconic football city - El Rastro flea market.

Noé who I was staying with, told me to get to the market area as early as possible and even though the market doesn’t really get going till 9am I definitely recommend getting down there a couple of hours before to take a walk around whilst the traders get set up so you can work out the parts of the market you need to check first before the heavy crowds pour in a 10am. 

The legendary flea market dates back to the 16th century and is one of those typically Madrid experiences that can’t be gentrified. Though stalls are more strictly regulated these days, this outdoor flea market retains its raucous edge with hundreds of sellers of all ages taking over the streets that make up Barrio de Embajadores to sell their wares. 

Again, you can find just about anything here, but for myself, obviously, old football items were top of the agenda and, of course, it didn’t take long for them to start appearing.

The streets where the flea takes place is on a hill with one main strip down the middle with a few busy squares and smaller street arteries coming off it, hopefully this makes sense if you read this and are visiting, but I would definitely suggest starting at the bottom of the hill at the square where I had visited the day before Plaza Del Campillo. Around this area of the flea there is your more typical vintage trinkets and old bits and pieces that are a real pleasure to sift through. 

As you walk up the side streets there are rogue stalls and shops that are only open for the weekend dotted either side until you eventually you come to Plaza del Gral which is another decent side square packed with antique and vintage stalls. From here you can cut through onto the main strip where there are another two or three stalls selling vintage kits for affordable prices. Just be careful, as sometimes the vintage shirts being sold at markets are there for a reason, and although they might look good at first, always check them properly for damage.  

Following the busy morning picking up a whole range of posters, watches, clothing, mascots and more I headed to meet Noé and Retro Football Gang at Bar Santurce for a much-needed lunch. Can’t big up this place enough, really affordable, impeccable vibes and, of course, delicious shareable platters right in the middle of all the action. 

Market and lunch over there was still one more shop to check out before the brilliant day was over, Galaxy Saurio. The toy shop has a bit of a legendary status in the city and is worth every bit of the hype. The Aladdin’s cave is filled floor to ceiling with 80s and 90s treasure. There are all sorts imaginable, from E.T collectibles and rare figures to NBA merch and vintage football trinkets. It’s really worth popping your head in if you’re in the area, you never leave empty-handed. But heads up maybe try and avoid the Sunday as it gets super busy there. 

After one final dig at Almacenes López HQ on Monday morning to see what Noé had in his box of old football stock, I was on the way back to the UK with a big bag of football swag.

Im not sure what I thought the Spanish capital might be like but I can’t rate it highly enough for a football mini-break. Clean, safe, cheap and a solid amount of football clothes and memorabilia to get your hands on.

I didn’t manage to make it to a match whilst I was there, but instead of visiting the obvious Real Madrid or Atlético I was told multiple times that heading to a Rayo Vallecano match is a brilliant day out and has an old-school stadium to boot. 

Hope this helps you on your own Madrid football adventures. And if you would like to see what I picked up, head to the Tour De Tat section of the store where all of the items are now up for grabs. 

Grax