Gaizka Garitano was dismissed despite victory over Elche, but if the timing was a surprise the board’s decision was notPretty much the last thing Gaizka Garitano did as coach of Athletic Club Bilbao was say how happy he was. When the final, final whistle went he embraced assistant Paxti Ferreira, put his arm around Yuri Berchiche and ducked out of the cold and pouring rain and into the tunnel at San Mamés beneath the bust of Pichichi. Iker Muniain’s 25th-minute strike and Óscar de Marcos’s last-minute goal-line clearance had been enough to equal their best winning run – one – defeat Elche, and overcome another ultimatum. Or so they thought. Inside in the dry, the manager was asked how big...
On Indalecio Ojanguren street are two blocks of flats that tower over Ipurua, meaning fans still got to watch the actionA small boy was waiting for the two buses carrying Athletic Club’s players as they turned the corner and edged up the hill towards Ipurua. When they pulled over outside, he clambered down from a grass bank and on to his dad’s shoulders for a glimpse of his idols that neither he nor anyone else was going to get inside. Just across the road, a couple of people had gathered by the gravel bowling court sheltered under the AP8 motorway as it thunders past the ground. And down at Bar Terraza, where framed Eibar shirts line the wall, four people...
After Saturday’s incident involving Iñaki Williams, there is still a lingering sense that racism is not being taken seriously enoughIñaki Williams had just begun the long walk to the bench when he heard something. There were 20 minutes left and Athletic Bilbao were drawing 1-1 at Espanyol, but that didn’t matter much any more. He was heading towards where Iker Muniain was about to take corner, yet his mind was elsewhere now. Barely a metre from Muniain as he ran up and bent the ball into the box, the pair crossing paths, his attention was drawn to the stands instead. Williams slowed slightly, head turned, hearing it more clearly now. He couldn’t tell how many, but it was too many....
The Basque club’s book-publishing and literature and film festivals are a model for how smaller clubs can express their identities in an era of super-club domination“They push me against the wall, hands on my head. They frisk me, recriminating me in a language I don’t understand. Something’s happening, but I don’t know what. Before I know it, it’s happening. I respond to their threats by shouting: ‘Please, help, please!’” So begins Togo, a book in which fear is a recurring theme. Written by Óscar de Marcos, it tells the story of the journeys that shaped him, the chapters alternating between his arrival in Africa and at Athletic Club Bilbao.In the book De Marcos says his parents wanted him to be...
The Athletic Bilbao forward is not a prolific scorer but, against Sevilla, his incredible sprint and finish astonished San Mamés When the ball came to Iñaki Williams and he spun, turning it sharply around Sergi Gómez and into the centre circle, a single thought and word occurred to everyone inside San Mamés, Iñaki included: Run! And so he ran. He ran like no one they’d ever seen run before: faster and faster until somehow, eight seconds later and 70 metres away, he was standing before them roaring, and Athletic were 2-0 up with five minutes left, Sevilla beaten. All around they went wild, as breathless as he was. Related: 'All guilty': Marseille fans spell out their anger at players, coach...