Fernando Llorente, one of Athletic's few stars, but is he actually Basque?
Historically Spain’s third most successful club, Athletic Bilbao appear to be stuck in a footballing rut they can’t get out of. This is largely due to the changing tide of modern football, and the club’s refusal to be swept up in its waves. This makes the club and its supporters all the more endearing
When I tell friends and acquaintances that I’ve been spending the last year in Spain, they presume I’m spending my days relaxing on a scorching beach, working up a tan, listening to flamenco, eating paella, sipping sangria and meeting vibrant and stunning women. The vast majority of Spain doesn’t fit this description, as indeed the majority of stereotypes about many countries fall wide of the mark. When you arrive in Bilbao, it seems to have more in common with Manchester than Malaga. It’s mid May but the sky is murky and grey. The streets are busy but there is no buzz about the place. What does strike you about it, however, is the presence of large Athletic Bilbao flags, adorning countless balconies of apartment buildings and visible in nearly every bar you see, even the ones aimed at a more middle class clientele.
Recently, Athletic haven’t had much to shout about in terms of success on the pitch. Yet the pride the city has for its only club is impossible to ignore. And this pride isn’t confined just to its locality either. Bilbao have more ‘penas’ (supporters clubs) in Spain than Barcelona and Madrid, not to mention those from abroad, boasting clubs in Venezuela, Mexico, the U.S and Sweden. Whilst they can’t attract the level of short term attention that recently successful clubs like Chelsea do, they garner a more solid respect from people who believe a football club should have something more to it than Hollywood style players.
If Bilbao are no longer renowned around the world for their recent footballing achievements (their last piece of silverware came in 1984), they compensate by being the only remaining professional team in the world that only selects players from their own country. It would be hard enough for any team to have much success in the current climate of top level football with a no foreigners policy, but Athletic’s plight is made ever harder by the fact that what they deem foreign is anyone from outside the Basque country, (a region defined by most Basques, albeit not by the Spanish government, as four Spanish provinces and three French ones) a demographic of only three million people. Some of the clubs detractors say that they define ‘Basque’ loosely – players from outside the region but with Basque relatives have played for the club, and controversy surrounds the legibility of star striker Fernando Llorente , who was born in a hospital in Pamplona, then allegedly driven straight back to La Rioja the next day, where he grew up. Nonetheless, the club are severely hindered by their selection policy and the challenge they face of competing in the Spanish Primera Division would be similar to a Premiership side only selecting players from Wales.
If a sugar daddy of Abramovic or Abu Dhabi proportions was to take up the Presidency of the club tomorrow, his money would not be of much use. The only big name players he’d be able to attract would be Xavi Alonso and Raul Garcia. To make matters worse, due to the relatively low quality of football the club has been playing recently, they are unable to even attract the best Basque players. Why would Xavi Alonso (from San Sebastian in the Basque Country), challenging for the Premier League and Champions League with Liverpool each year, join an annual relegation dog fight with Athletic? It would be a great story if he did, but it’s unlikely he ever would. If he did hold his Basque pride dearer than his own ambition to win trophies, he would surely return to his former club Real Sociedad, who play in San Sebastian. In fact, Sociedad also used to have a ‘Basques only’ policy, but it ended in 1989 with the signing of John Aldridge. This began a new policy whereby the club could sign any player, apart from non-Basque Spaniards, displaying the bizarre logic that someone from La Rioja, 2 hours from San Sebastian, had less of an affiliation to the club than someone from Argentina. This policy was then scrapped in 2003, after which the club was able to sign any player they wanted, transfer fees permitted. Bizarrely, this didn’t bring the club a change in fortunes for the better, and they were condemned to relegation to the Second Division in 2006/2007.
This move didn´t go down particularly well with the Sociedad faithful, several of whom switched allegiances to Athletic in protest, the last bastion of the ‘Basques only’ policy.
Athletic fans sneer at the change of heart of their neighbours, yet Athletic themselves have always been in a very privileged position which has come with their earlier domination of Spanish football. In a sense, they are like a Man United of the Basque country, paying large amounts of money to prize quality players from other clubs. Javi Martinez, one of the stars of the current side, was plucked from Osasuna in 2007 at the age of 18 for 6 million euros. Their veteran Exteberreria, now considered to be one of the sides greatest ever players, was signed from Sociedad for 3m, the highest transfer fee paid at the time for a player under the age of 18. So whilst Athletic receive great admiration for their ‘Basque only’ philosophy compared to the ‘splash the cash’ strategy of Real Madrid and Man City, they are only able to continue this policy due to their own considerable wealth.
In spite of the limitations the policy brings to the club, the supporters hold it very dearly. When I speak to a group of young, attractive females in a bar in Bilbao´s Casco Viejo they remain stubborn over it. ‘If we could sign any player in the world? Messi, but only if he was Basque. Success isn´t everything to us, we´d rather get relegated than change the policy and sign foreign players.’ Indeed, the threat of relegation is not to be smirked at. Although the club have been mathematically safe for a couple of weeks, the prospect of playing in the 2nd division loomed large in November, when they had clocked up just 6 points from their first 10 league games. A solid run leading up to Christmas and following the winter break – where they took 20 points from a possible 30 – put their supporters minds at rest. Nonetheless, this is the third straight season that relegation looked a very real possibility, which is strange for a club the size of Athletic, who, if they were to abandon their rigid selection policy, could feasibly be challenging for the title and playing in the Champions League. And yet, their supporters seem content to underachieve, so long as they remain, along with Barcelona and Madrid, the only team to have never left Spain’s top flight, a badge of pride the team wears to counter the successes of other large clubs that have had recent success such as Deportivo, Valencia and Villarreal.
But what exactly is wrong with having foreign players? I try and get an answer from the attractive senoritas. I ask them if its possible for a foreign player to become an adopted local, citing the example of Johan Cruyff in Barcelona, seen as a hero not just for his talents but for the way he integrated into the city, famously giving his son the Catalan name Jordi, at a time when the use of Catalan names was banned by the Constitution drawn up by General Franco. I also explain that my favourite player of all time is Eric Cantona, a foreigner. “We have players that are not fully Basque, we have had players of colour, players from outside the Basque country who have become more integrated into the Basque culture, but they have had a Basque relative. To have a player with no connection to the Basque country at all would be very difficult.” And in spite of my love for King Eric, it can’t be denied that the connection the club has with its locality runs deep. Jose Etxeberria, a club hero, announced last year that he would play next season, his last as a footballer, without receiving a salary from the club. Although he is obviously already a wealthy man, it is hard to imagine many other players making the same move in the era of greed that is 21st century football. The attitude of ‘Etxe’ is a breath of fresh air in the face of Ashley Cole’s claims that he almost crashed his car, such was his disbelief when he heard that his boyhood club Arsenal were only offering him £50,000 a week for his services.
Athletic’s detractors however, say that the selection policy has a sinister side: a political statement used to further the Basque nationalist agenda. And many fans do like to let their nationalist tendencies be known, often uttering their club’s philosophy proudly in between a nationalist rant, in my experience; I can even sense a hint of disdain for all things Spanish in the eyes of my newly acquainted Bilbao Babes. Yet the rigid selection of Basque only players is not always held up as a middle finger to Spain. I get talking to an elderly chap sporting a retro Bilbao top, pin badges and a beret from the recent Copa del Rey Final in Valencia. “The Basque only selection policy is vital to the club and it will never go away. Yes, I would sooner see us relegated than abolish it.’ When I ask him about his opinions on Spain, he replies: “Well, I am Basque, but the truth is, we are part of Spain, some say we are not, but we are. When Spain won the European Championships, I was happy. Not ecstatic, but happy. I´m not a radical, but this is one thing I am radical about. It´s part of our identity.’ And it certainly does give more meaning to the club, keeping it in touch with footballing tradition in the face of the threat of soulless commercialism that wracks so many aspects of the modern game.
And it’s not as if following the club is a dull affair. Last week Athletic travelled to Valencia for the final of the Copa Del Rey (a trophy they have won 24 times) where they put to the sword by Barcelona. Although Barca are arguably the biggest club in Spain, if not the world, the Basque club’s travelling faithful outnumbered and out sung the Catalans in and outside the stadium, and amazed Samuel Et’oo, who wore an Athletic beret during the trophy celebrations and told the press of his admiration for the losing side’s supporters.
Tonight’s fixture, the last home game of the season, brings an intriguing opponent, Atletico Madrid. Many people unfamiliar with Spanish football often confuse the two clubs, due to the first part of their names and their red and white stripes. Indeed you shouldn’t blame anyone for confusing them, seeing as one spawned the other. Atletico Madrid was founded by two Basque students who moved to Madrid to go to university. Not warming much to Real, they wanted to create a Madrid equivalent of the club they loved dearly, Athletic, and so Athletic Madrid was born, their shirt design copying Bilbao’s, at the time dark blue and white, not dissimilar to the design of Blackburn Rovers’ shirt. Indeed, the two clubs almost seemed to exist together as one entity. When the Madrid side adopted red and white stripes as their kit, Bilbao soon followed suit. However, on looking at the two clubs today, the only thing that remains in common is the colours.
Whilst Athletic’s line up spans only from Vizcaya to Navarra, Atletico’s takes in Uruguay, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, Holland as well as Spain. This variety certainly adds a bit of spice to the Madrid side, which boasts Kun Aguero, hotly tipped, predictably, as ‘the new Maradonna’. Then there is Diego Forlan, a flop in England with Manchester United but a huge success in Spain, being top scorer in 2005 with Villareal and tonight just one goal behind Barca’s Samuel Et’oo in this year’s race for the La Liga equivalent to the Golden Boot, the ‘Pichichi’, named after a player from, funnily enough, Athletic Bilbao. And it’s not just on the pitch that the clubs contrast. Despite the Basque roots of Atletico, their supporters are proud to be Spanish, their travelling fans tonight singing ‘Viva Espana’ and holding aloft Spanish flags, much to the anger of their hosts, who chant back ‘Espanoles, hijos de puta’ (Spaniards, sons of whores). Things get more tasty when a vocal section of the Madrid fans offer Nazi salutes, countered by the darling chant of ‘ETA mata los’, a plea for the infamous Basque terrorist organisation to kill their guests. The fans directly below the away section flee their seats in fear of getting objects thrown at them, but it is the Bilbao fans that throw objects, albeit only plastic cups, but it significantly ups the temperature. Their opponents answer only with loud chanting and mocking gestures, but no real trouble breaks out. The Athletic fans are provoked though, and after the game the gate where the visiting fans are waiting to exit is continuously bombarded with rocks and glass bottles. The watching riot police do nothing at first, then wade in with their smoke guns and batons, causing a surge of ordinary supporters down the road, desperate to escape the chaos. The madness appears to be over but then a group of Athletic fans turn over and set fire to huge disposal bins, blocking the road. More explosions are heard from close by, and then a riot police van pulls up and policemen fire smoke guns down the road, causing more chaos. After the game many Bilbao fans blame ‘the fucking Spaniards’ for provoking them, yet it is plain to see that the blame for most of the violence lies with the Basques, and is a poignant reminder of the depth and aggressive nature of the separatist feelings that still grip this city.
On the pitch though, the gulf in class on paper doesn’t immediately translate. Bilbao are a tough, hard working side which wouldn’t look out of place in the Premiership. Their guile compensates for their lack of flair and the fist half is evenly matched, neither side creating any clear cut chances, and ends nil nil. The second half is started more brightly by Athletic, who should really have taken the lead on more than one occasion. Yet, it is the class of Madrid that breaks the deadlock, a sweet finish across the far post from Raul Garica beating the keeper after good link up play.
Bilbao’s fans scream their encouragement and the players respond well, going close on two occasions to equalise, but denied by keeper Leo Franco, who forces a corner, an area from which Athletic are most dangerous. And so it proves, when Xabier Etxeita latches on to a searching cross to head the ball into the net. At this moment, San Mames, so far not quite living up to its reputation as being a cauldron of noise, erupts. When the whole crowd gets going, the noise is deafening and it is impossible not to get caught up in the fever of the club. The home side up the tempo and come very close to going in front, Llorente missing a sitter from six yards out. They soon live to regret their squandering of chances, as Atletico grab the lead against the run of play, a superb bit of skill by Forlan, his quick feet beating his man with ease before driving a daisy cutting shot into the bottom corner. He then scores a carbon copy of the goal 5 minutes later, followed by his hattrick goal from the spot after a baffling decision by the referee to reward a penalty, the Uruguyan all but securing the Pichichi in the very stadium where the legend was born. For all the bravery and strength shown by the hard working Basques, it is the exotic flair of a foreign player that puts them on the end of an embarrassing, albeit slightly unjust, score line.
So, brave Athletic are on the receiving end of a scoreline that doesn’t reflect the run of play in the game, but underlines the gulf in class between the two sides and ultimately shows that for all the history the club has and the spirit of its team, the future looks rather bleak while it holds onto its admirable but ultimately limiting selection policy.
