Aberdeen Football Club was formed in
1903 from three other football clubs based in Aberdeen,
Victoria United,
Orion and a different and separate entity called
Aberdeen. The new club found a home at
Pittodrie where they play to this year and in 1904 the new team was elected to the second divison of the Scottish league. They were promoted again to the first division the next year, and since then have always played in the top Scottish football league, despite narrowly avoiding relegation on several occasions.
It was not until in the aftermath of World War 2 that Aberdeen would lift a trophy, winning the first post-war League Cup in 1946 and following up the next season by winning the Scottish Cup. In 1955 Aberdeen won the Scottish league for the first time.
Aberdeen would beat Celtic to win the Scottish Cup again in 1970, but their most successful period came under the the managership of Alex Ferguson (1978-1986), (who went on to subsequent triumph at Manchester United), where they won the Scottish Premier League 3 times, the Scottish Cup 4 times, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Ferguson was blessed by inheriting some excellent young players such as Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Gordon Strachan, Steve Archibald and Jim Leighton when he became Aberdeen manager, and won the Scottish premier league in his second season at the club. Added to this experience was a clutch of teenagers who Ferguson groomed for success and who were introduced into the team in the early 1980s. The team became fearless and would regularly beat Rangers and Celtic in Glasgow, and this self-belief resulted in league and cup triumphs, and ultimately the defeat of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid enroute to European victory.
After Ferguson left to manage Manchester United, the team failed to keep to the heights they had reached in the early 80s, but would consistently be the second best team behind Rangers for the rest of the 80s and early 90s. Various incidents in games between the two clubs would accumulate in this period so that now encounters between the two sides are now almost as spite-filled as the Old Firm derbies in Glasgow.
Aberdeen play in an all red strip, and are currently managed by Jimmy Calderwood as from June 2004.