Athletic
Club de Bilbao are a Spanish football team from Bilbao in
Vizcaya. The club, which was founded by British expatriates in
1898, currently plays in the Primera División, where they have
resided since the formation of Spain's national league in 1928.
Of the founding league members, only Athletic, Real Madrid, and
FC Barcelona have never been relegated. Their biggest
international success was in the season 1976-77, losing in the
final of the UEFA Cup to Juventus of Turin.
They are known as the Rojiblancos, because of their strip colour:
red with white stripes and black shorts; and as Los leones ("the
lions"), from the supporter of their coat-of-arms. Their stadium
is the San Mamés, also known as La Catedral ("the cathedral" (of
football)), which seats 46,500 spectators.
The Athletics are one of the great names of Spanish football.
They have been consistently successful over their history,
although since the 1980s, championships have eluded them,
finding it hard to compete against the great spending power of
Real Madrid and Barça. This was compounded by a policy of only
signing Basque players which exists to this day; this severely
limits the talent pool from which the team can draw. This self-imposed
restriction exists as an expression of Basque pride and a belief
that they can win with just the "local boys". After 1912, only
one non-Spanish player has ever been signed by the club—Bixente
Lizarazu, a French Basque who played for the club late in the
1990s. At one time, País Vasco was a breeding ground of great
Spanish players, and this worked in their favour. A bumper
sticker summarized it as Con cantera y afición, no hace falta
importación. ("With homegrown teams and supporters, there is no
need for 'imports'".) In the competitive world of modern
football, it is not such an advantage.
The Basqueness of players has been interpreted differently from
time to time. Miguel Jones, a Negro born in Equatorial Guinea
but raised at the Bilbao cantera, couldn't play for Athletic in
the 1950s, while other players born abroad with Basque ancestors
have in some cases been admitted. This contrasts with the
practice of Athletic's Basque rival Real Sociedad, which once
had a similar Basque-only policy but abandoned it in 1989.
The attention to cantera (homegrown teams) has led to the
paradox that, while many supporters are Basque nationalists, the
team has supplied many players to the Spanish national team.
Spanish players from other teams were often eclipsed by foreign
stars and didn't reach the level required for international
matches.
Atlético de Madrid was founded by Basque students in Madrid. The
early relationships between both teams are visible in the
similar uniforms.
In 2003, in its first season, the women's football team won the
Spanish championship.
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