No one has ever fallen for the Basque County quite like Archduchess Maria Christina.
An exquisite pianist and polyglot, she left the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy to marry King Alfonso of Spain in 1879, and built a palatial holiday home on the shores of San Sebastian following a beguiling stately visit. In her Basque hideaway, she swam in the Bay of Biscay, gambled in a Monte Carlo-style casino she had erected and drank cocktails with renowned guests, the UK’s own Queen Victoria among them. Today, her statue overlooks La Concha beach, gazing eternally across a corner of the world Maria Christina believed possessed a certain kind of magic.
It doesn’t take FFT long to see what the fuss is about as we land a few miles along the coast in Bilbao, the Basque Country’s largest city by population.
FourFourTwo visits the Basque Country
Made of seven provinces that straddle northern Spain and a small section of south-west France, the greater Basque Country region – or Euskal Herria in the gloriously impenetrable local language – is among the most picturesque on Earth. From the back of a taxi winding to San Sebastian, we gaze to our left at the shimmering sea and lush green hills and vineyards to our right. The area’s sheer fertility is striking.
Such a compliment can be extended to the region’s canteras – literally meaning ‘quarries’ but Spanish-football-speak for academies. Despite boasting some three million inhabitants – a population size it shares with the equally intemperate Wales – plus two languages (Spanish and Basque, or Euskera), the Basque Country has long produced some of Europe’s top talents.
Juan Alonso and Jose Maria Zarraga were Real Madrid captains for three of their first five European Cup wins in the late 1950s, while Barcelona’s Basque quintet Jose Mari Bakero, Txiki Begiristain, Andoni Zubizarreta, Julio Salinas and Alexanko were central to their first continental crown in 1992.
More recently, there’s Gaizka Mendieta and Xabi Alonso, plus French-Basques Didier Deschamps and Bixente Lizarazu. The ceaseless production line has eclipsed Madrid and Andalusia as Spain’s greatest diamond mine, perhaps behind only Catalonia.
Of the 15 players who got onto the field when Spain defeated England in last summer’s Euro 2024 Final, Unai Simon, Aymeric Laporte, Robin Le Normand, Nico Williams, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Mikel Oyarzabal either have or currently play for the region’s big two, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad.
Williams and Oyarzabal scored Spain’s goals in the 2-1 win. Manager Luis de la Fuente was a former Athletic player and coach. Founded in July 1898, making them older than Barcelona and Real Madrid, Athletic have long been famed for their Basques-only selection policy. La Real – in Spain, the Basques, not the Madrid giants, have the regal contraction – had one for a significant period too, until they abandoned the never-codified rule to sign Liverpool’s John Aldridge in 1989.
NO HATRED, JUST RESPECT
The first stop on our four-day Basque odyssey is La Real’s Zubieta training base in the Gipuzkoa province’s foothills. Academy director Luki Uriarte greets us.
“We still aim to have some 80 per cent of our academy and 60 per cent of our first team from the Basque Country,” he explains, leading us through a series of pristine pitches in light drizzle. “We work with more than 100 local amateur clubs from the region to find young players. From the age of 12, the best join us here at Zubieta, where they receive world-class training, support and education.”
Uriarte isn’t joking. At Zubieta, children achieve better grades than in ‘normal’ society. “It’s in our best interests,” he beams, proudly. “Engaged and well-educated kids are much better learners on the field, too. It also gives them the opportunity to attend universities if football doesn’t work out. Only 11 per cent of the boys here will go on to be footballers. Only eight per cent will play for our first team. So it’s imperative that they get a good education first.”
Despite their dedication to finding local gems, Uriarte admits a slackening of the previous policy has helped the club to grow. Without it, they couldn’t have signed Alexander Isak – sold to Newcastle for a record £63 million in 2022 – or a teenage Antoine Griezmann in 2005. The Frenchman made more than 200 first-team outings, before leaving for Atletico Madrid in 2014.
“Antoine was considered too small by clubs back in France, but we saw something in him,” recalls Uriarte, the forward’s first coach at Zubieta. “He didn’t speak Spanish at first and he was homesick, but we nurtured him. He had extraordinary intelligence and technical ability. We used to say, ‘When Antoine plays, the sun comes out’. Which, as you can see, doesn’t happen too often here.”
The region’s northern coastal location means it enjoys far fewer hours of sunlight than pretty much anywhere else in Spain.
We’re led to the first-team pitch, where Oyarzabal, Zubimendi & Co are doing rondos.
Each time a player has a pass cut out, cries of “perro!” (“You dog!”) go up and laughter breaks out. It looks so joyous that you’d be forgiven for thinking there wasn’t a big derby in two days’ time, as Real host Athletic in LaLiga. As training wraps up, coach Imanol Alguacil comes over for a chat. The 53-year-old is one of several respected bosses to have hailed from Gipuzkoa – from a population roughly the size of Leeds, the area has also produced Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Andoni Iraola, to name just a few.
Alguacil was a Real Sociedad defender in the 1990s, becoming their manager in late 2018 and beating Athletic in the Copa del Rey final inside 18 months.
Days before our meeting, he announced plans to step down at the end of the season, after six and a half years in charge. His side go into the derby sat in 10th, their hopes for a sixth successive European campaign quickly declining. Last term, they reached the Champions League knockouts for the first time in 20 years.
“It’s my last derby against Athletic, which will make it an even more special occasion for me,” he tells FFT. “I hope I can bow out with three points and make the fans happy one last time.”
Soon we head over to the 40,000-capacity Anoeta, erected in 1993 and refurbished from 2017 to 2019, in the centre of San Sebastian. Club legend Xabi Prieto, one of a select few to play more than 500 competitive games for La Real, meets us.
The former midfielder shows us the club’s pair of LaLiga trophies, won in 1981 and 1982, before leading us pitchside. There’s a reverence to this royal blue scene without fans.
“Today, this club is more professional than when I began,” smiles Prieto, who played for the first team between 2003 and 2018. “The facilities are better – just look around at this place – but the ethos remains the same. Combine local talent with the best from around the world.”
Prieto did suffer relegation with the club in 2007, helping them back up in 2010. Across 530 appearances, he faced local rivals Athletic many times.
“The derbies are huge for the local area, but they aren’t as fierce as some of Spain’s other rivalries,” he admits. “This isn’t Sevilla versus Real Betis, where there’s hatred. Bragging rights are important to us, but there’s also respect. We’re two proud clubs that promote local talent and celebrate the best of Basque football.”
After an evening of fine wine and pintxos (a local version of tapas), FFT wakes early and heads to Athletic’s world-famous Lezama training centre. Recently rebuilt, the sprawling, state-of-the-art complex features seven training pitches set in the Bizkaia province’s misty hills.
The mood doesn’t match the salubrious setting, after Athletic’s 3-0 Europa League semifinal first-leg loss to Manchester United a couple of days ago. Since San Mames got hosting rights for this season’s final, they’d dreamed of becoming the first team since Sporting in 2005 to play in a home showpiece.
Nevertheless, sporting director Mikel Gonzalez has a warm handshake for us.
“This club is unique, it’s as simple as that,” the fresh-faced 37-year-old tells FFT, matter-of-factly. “For more than 100 years, our first team has featured only players born or raised in the Basque Country. We’ve been Spanish champions eight times and lifted the Copa del Rey 24 times.”
Only Barcelona have won the cup on more occasions.
“With Real Madrid and Barcelona, we’re the only three teams never to have been relegated from LaLiga, and we’re one of four clubs owned by our members,” he continues. “People call what we do here a miracle, but let me tell you, it’s all down to hard work and our traditions.”
Athletic’s rhyming motto remains strictly enforced. ‘Con cantera y aficion, no hace falta importacion’ – with our home-grown academy and local fans, there’s no need for imports.
They can sign anyone born in the Basque Country, or any player raised in the area for non-football reasons (meaning they won’t recruit a player brought to the Basque region by another club simply to play football). Merely being the progeny of a Basque person is also not enough.
“Put it this way,” says Gonzalez, “I was born here, in Bilbao, I grew up here and I work as Athletic’s director of football. But say I moved to Munich tomorrow and later raised a child there – that child wouldn’t be allowed to play for this club. It isn’t about genetics, it’s about culture – growing up here and understanding this way of life.”
Athletic work with more than 160 amateur clubs across the Basque region. Every year, some 1,000 hopeful 10-year-olds are invited to come and train at Lezama. The best are cherry-picked for the academy. If a late developer slips through the net the first time, clubs will get back in touch later down the line, asking Athletic to take a second look.
“The level of coaching at the clubs we work with is absolutely top,” explains Gonzalez. “These players have often had a good education before they even get here. People ask how the Basque region can produce enough good footballers every year for this to be sustainable, but the secret is all in the coaching. These aren’t street footballers we’re taking in. They’re well-coached players, schooled in the Basque way of playing. They’re ready to come in and get started.”
Athletic invest more than €2m annually in this scheme, employing 25 full-time members of staff. Yet nothing is guaranteed. “There have been times in the past when a particular generation has very few prospects – that’s just the law of averages,” says Gonzalez.
“But we work with what we have. There may also be a paucity of certain types of players in a given generation – a lack of full-backs, for instance. Other clubs can just go out and find the best one from Africa, Asia or Europe. Not us. We mould the players to suit our needs.”
We head to the academy residence, which can house 50 youngsters up to the age of 18. “Most of our kids stay with their families, as they’re from the area,” says Gonzalez. “But sometimes we bring a Basque player back from an academy further afield or even abroad, and they can stay here with us. They’re provided with access to education, psychologists and nutritionists to help them reach their maximum potential.” Youngsters here must be ready, as Los Leones can’t just dive into the transfer market to replace stars. When key men depart – Laporte, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Ander Herrera are among the big names to move to the Premier League – tyros step up to take their place.
“Thankfully, the vast majority of our first-team players don’t want to leave us,” says Gonzalez. “We’re a community here. These are kids from the region, who’ve dreamed of representing this club since the day they were born.
“We’re also a successful club. We’ve been playing in Europe this season, we won the Copa del Rey last year and we pay our players well. We try to create a culture where this is seen as the best place for our players to be.”
When stars do leave, the club don’t demure in selecting the next gem.
“Other clubs can hesitate in handing a talented young player their first-team debut, but we don’t have that luxury,” states Gonzalez. “If they’re needed, they go in. You’d be surprised just how often they rise to the challenge and reach a level that even we hadn’t expected. It makes us so proud.”
It also makes success taste that bit sweeter. The 2024 cup triumph was Athletic’s first piece of silverware since winning back-to-back Ligas in 1983 and 1984 – ending four years in which the Spanish title never departed the Basque Country after La Real’s triumphs.
Every Athletic trophy is toasted on the gabarra – a dog-eared local barge – sailing down the Nervion river.
FFT is soon whisked over to San Mames for a tour of the glorious bubble-dome, 53,000-seat Catedral, rebuilt in 2013 on the same site as the original a century earlier. Among the trophies and various artefacts documenting an extraordinary history at the adjacent museum is a wall depicting everyone to have represented the Athletic first team.
The roll call of famous names seems endless, from current Bournemouth boss Iraola and former Spurs striker Fernando Llorente to Andoni Goikoetxea, the Maradona-maiming ‘Butcher of Bilbao’, and legendary forward Rafael ‘Pichichi’ Moreno, after whom LaLiga’s top scorer trophy is named, plus accordion-playing left-wing genius Estanis Argote, so shy he hated wearing shorts.
Remember, three million people, with competition for the best talents rife between clubs.
“Every one of those stars has hailed from the Basque County,” smiles tour guide Iker, explaining how Athletic’s cantera policy began before the First World War. “This club truly is unique in world football.”
A LOAD OF BULL
But what of the other Basque clubs? How do they compete? Under a rare cloudless sky, FFT ventures to the province of Navarra to visit fellow top-tier outfit Osasuna in Pamplona, perhaps most famous for its annual running of bulls through the city streets.
“We’re actually the only club to have a Basque word for a name,” declares grassroots director Angel Alcalde, who finds us on the sun-kissed steps of the club’s 23,000-capacity El Sadar stadium, before taking us for a stroll along the touchline, admiring the steep banks of a ground famed for its raucous support.
“Osasuna means ‘health’, and that’s a pretty apt word for our setup. We’re the only professional club in Navarra and we have a very passionate fanbase, so local talents want to play here. We offer superb training facilities and world-class coaching – we work incredibly hard with families to convince them that this is the best place to send their young boys and girls. At grassroots level, we’re competing with Athletic and La Real.”
Alcalde explains that Osasuna work with 154 amateur clubs in the Basque Country, as FFT wonders how many more there can possibly be in this region.
Los Rojillos’ graduates include Merino, Nacho Monreal and Cesar Azpilicueta. While breeding the next generation of local talent is the aim, the club does run academies overseas and will recruit foreign players if necessary.
“That costs money, which we don’t have a massive amount of,” says Alcalde. “So the preference is always local talent.”
Though Osasuna are up for a battle with the big two – indeed, at the time of our trip they sit eighth in La Liga, above Real Sociedad – that isn’t the case for everyone. Our next stop-off is fellow top-flight outfit Alaves, who belied their stature to reach the 2001 UEFA Cup Final, only to lose 5-4 to Liverpool thanks to a golden-goal own goal in extra time.
We’re in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz to watch the relegation battlers take on Atletico Madrid. Ahead of a spirited 0-0 draw in a vibrant Mendizorroza Stadium, president Alfonso Fernandez de Troconiz reveals how they have to do things a bit differently here.
Slipping to the third tier in 2009, they returned to La Liga in 2016.
“This province, Alava, has just 250,000 people, so the talent pool is much lower,” he tells FFT.
“We don’t have the pull, historically or financially, of the big two or Osasuna. We’ve had to get creative. We recruit the best players we can from right across Spain. We have academies in Croatia – a country that consistently produces good footballers – and beyond. We also offer talented youngsters from all over the world scholarships at local universities, with the idea that they can study while training with us.
“It’s proved to be a successful model. We’re financially stable now and would be even if we were relegated. That hasn’t always been the case. The club almost went bankrupt in 2008, but it was saved by local businesses and we’re going from strength to strength. Thankfully, eight of the past nine campaigns have been in LaLiga, allowing us to invest TV revenue into our successful practices.”
Later that day, we check in at second-tier Eibar for their evening clash against promotion-chasing Mirandes. A La Liga side as recently as 2021, Eibar, like Real Sociedad, are from Gipuzkoa, meaning they don’t even have a well of talent to themselves.
In fact, their best youngsters are almost always lured away by their illustrious neighbours, including Spain’s Euro 2024 Final hero Oyarzabal, who commenced his career here before being poached in his teens.
SAINTS CONNECTION
Amid a fabric shortage back home, Bilbao student Juan Elorduy was tasked with sourcing some new shirts, so he picked up 50 jerseys in Southampton before catching a ship back to the Basque Country.
The strip was the same one the Hampshire team used, and Athletic have worn the colours ever since.
“It’s very rare for us to have a player in the first team that came through our youth ranks,” board member Jon Ulazia tells FFT before kick-off. “If they’re good enough, they get taken, simple as that. Oyarzabal was born locally, he played here for seven years and we were really excited about him, but there was no stopping him from moving to La Real. We’re still so proud of him because he’s a product of our academy, but it was tough to see him leave.”
With a population of just 27,000, Eibar is the smallest city to have had a team in La Liga, while Ipurua held only 6,000 fans after their first ever promotion to the top flight in 2014. A community-owned institution, with around 10,000 members, they know money is tight but have competed using an inverse Basque system.
“We offer players that get released by Athletic, La Real and Osasuna a second chance in professional football,” says Ulazia. “Many of our current first-team squad came through the academies at one of those clubs. When they get to 14 or 15 and are told they won’t make it, we offer them an opportunity. We know they’ll have had a brilliant education from those clubs. We give them a chance to shine and, if they leave us later on, we use the transfer money to reinvest back into the club.”
Eibar’s aim is to return to LaLiga, but as the sun dips behind Ipurua, nestled in a lush green valley surrounded by mountains, that looks like a pipe dream. A scrappy game ends 1-0 to Mirandes. We’ve seen two matches so far and just one goal. Thankfully, we still have the big one to come.
RAMBO AND DIVIDED TWINS
FFT has been to many local derbies in our time, and we’ve witnessed our fair share of friction. The Basque derby is not that sort of clash, though. The streets of San Sebastian – or Donostia in Basque – are a vibrant melting pot in the hours leading up to the Sunday 9pm kick-off.
Bars around Anoeta are festooned red and blue as two sets of fans enjoy a rare moment of calm before the storm – quite literally, there’s a downpour due.
FFT wanders over to a group of Athletic fans, among the myriad who’ve made the 60-mile trip, drinking and laughing together. Lying fourth in La Liga, and on course for the Champions League for the first time in a decade, this is not the moment for a derby defeat.
“We always want to beat La Real, but this one matters even more,” grins Aitor, whose three amigos, beers in hands and bucket hats on heads, nod in unison. “We don’t hate them, but we still can’t stand losing to them. It’s important to us, especially, to show our policy, our traditions, are the right way. We’re the only club to have only local players. It’s something our fanbase is so proud of.
“This has also been a tough week, with the Manchester United result, so a win would put a smile back on people’s faces. ¡Vamos!”
The group drain their cervezas and slink off to the ground. Real Sociedad and their fans are also looking to bounce back.
“Last weekend, we lost to Alaves in the league,” sighs Julen, standing with his moustachioed father in the shadow of the stadium, blue-and-white scarf tied around his head, Rambo-style. “That’s another derby for this region, but obviously not the biggest one for us. Losing two in a row would be unthinkable. It’s been a disappointing season for us so far, but there’s still a chance of qualifying for Europe, so this would really be a boost.”
As we make our way towards the turnstiles, we’re stopped in our tracks by a sight so bizarre, we double-take. Identical twins – one wearing the blue and white of La Real, the other wearing the red and white of Athletic. Surely not.
“Our whole family is split right down the middle – our mother’s side support Athletic and our father’s side support La Real,” laughs Unax, clearly the mummy’s boy of the pair, rocking his Athletic jersey. “So we support both teams equally. We decided to wear a different shirt each for today’s game to represent both sides.”
Brother Enaitz, decked out in blue, chuckles. “The hilarious thing is, our sister actually supports Osasuna,” he explains. “She just wanted to be different, I guess. We hope we see a good game today.”
With that, they wave goodbye in unison and disappear into the stadium. We follow suit.
We’re not sure what we expected to see on the pitch once we got inside, but a few dozen traditional Basque dancers, many of them children and all dressed like medieval farmhands, wouldn’t have been our first guess. Following a stirring rendition of a traditional hymn, they exit the field and the real fireworks begin. Flags and lit flares adorn the stands, as the players take to the pitch in sleeting rain.
While Real Sociedad are close to full strength, Athletic manager Ernesto Valverde has made seven changes from the side that lost Thursday’s Europa League semi-final, with star winger Nico Williams absent from the matchday squad, though elder brother Inaki plays.
As the players shake hands and take their positions, the home end unveils a massive tifo of what appears to be a Viking above the words, ‘We’ll defend our ancestral home’ written in Basque, a language so distinct from any other in the world, let alone Spanish, it has no cognate. It’s a spine-tingling spectacle. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the game itself.
Players steam into one another on the wet turf, as the ball skids and skims but never really seems under control. Japanese forward Takefusa Kubo is a thorn in Athletic’s side during the first half – his direct running forces defenders into a series of last-gasp blocks and tackles, but no clear-cut chances emerge.
Former Manchester City utility man Sergio Gomez sees a close-range effort sail over Athletic’s crossbar, before the players trudge back down the tunnel in frustration at the halfway point.
The second period is no different. Real Sociedad go closest to breaking the deadlock when Brais Mendez’s header forces a great save from goalkeeper Simon. Athletic’s Alex Berenguer races through on goal late in the match, but a last-ditch tackle from 19-year-old academy graduate Jon Martin thwarts him.
The visitors offer little else and the game concludes with just four shots on target, despite the lively atmosphere. Three games down, one goal scored – we’ve not exactly been lavished with entertainment here. The stalemate is fine for Athletic, however, who have a four-point cushion in the Champions League places with four games left.
For La Real, who drop to 11th, it’s another annoying result. We amble back out into the rain and join a small group of supporters at a bar near Anoeta for a sombre beer, before heading to bed. It’s been a long few days in our Basque crash course, and we’re exhausted. The following morning, on the drive to Bilbao airport, more rain cascades over the region’s luscious hills and valleys. We may have witnessed only one goal in 270 minutes of football, but there’s a sense that we’ve seen something truly spectacular here.
In this fascinating pocket of Europe, one that openly revels in its otherness, we’ve peeked behind the curtain to find out how three million people manage to consistently produce so many top-class footballers. We’ve seen how canteras mine such prodigies from the Basque Country’s academy buildings, training grounds and stadia.
We’ve asked countless questions and seen the quarries with our own eyes. We literally couldn’t have been given any more information. Yet, as we leave these lush pastures, such footballing achievements remain jaw-dropping for a place so small.
Maybe Maria Christina was right all along. There must be a certain kind of magic in the air.
