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The Basques are the most incredible people of all who live in Europe. There are only three million of them (however, in general, about 15 million people in the world are of Basque origin and live mainly in Latin America), their genetic set of chromosomes corresponds to a typical European population – only from the prehistoric era Their Basque language is isolated and does not belong to any of the known linguistic families.
The Basques do not like Spain and do not consider themselves part of it. San Mamés, Atlético’s stadium, remained the only stadium in the state that did not applaud Andrés Iniesta for his historic goal in the World Cup final, which brought gold medals to the Red Furies. The terrorist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, “Basque Country and Freedom”) terrorized all of Spain with its bloody acts for many years. The country is divided into 17 autonomous communities, of which the Basque Country and Catalonia receive (according to the government, but not the residents of these regions) the most preferences, only to forget about the separation.
Basque nationalism has its roots in the deep past; after all, even during general European Romanization, the Basques retained their linguistic slave. “When the whole continent submitted to Rome, – said Sabino Arana, nicknamed “Father of the Basque people”, – The Basques went to the Cantabrian Mountains, having managed to preserve their purity of blood, their language and their own culture“.
Sabino Arana died at the beginning of the 20th century, but his ideology became general in Euskadi.
Athletic is played by the Basques or the footballers raised from virginity in the Basque soccer academies (Real Sociedad, by the way, had the same transfer policy), while the Basque academies are considered not only those that are stationed directly in the Country itself. Basques, but also related to the so-called “Basque lands”, territories with a predominant Basque population. In Spain, this is the autonomous community of Navarra (the strongest team is Osasuna), in France it is part of the department of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
The Basque Country has always disliked the power of the center of Madrid. In sporting terms, all the Basque hatred went to the club, rightly or wrongly, but traditionally identified with this power – “Real”.
Everyone is used to the fact that in football terminology “El Clásico” is a match between “Real” and “Barça”. In fact, “El Clásico” means “Classic”, that is, a duel of classic teams – as in Spanish-speaking countries soccer clubs that have never left the elite division in their history are often called. There are three such teams in the Example: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic, and all the matches between them are known as El Clásico. However, the tension in the matches between Blancos and Athletic was so strong from the beginning that the fight soon took its own name: El Viejo Clásico, which means “Old Classic”.
It is interesting that the fans of “Athletics” alone have created another main enemy of the capital club.
How did this happen?
In the final of the first draw of the Copa del Rey (now called the Spanish Cup, but at that time it was practically the Spanish championship), Madrid and Athletic contested the trophy at the Ipodromo de la Castellana stadium in the capital before 10,000 spectators . The whites led after the first half with a score of 2: 0, but in the second half the Bilbao team scored three goals, having delivered a great comeback (strong-willed victory). Basque students living in the capital and studying at the Polytechnic University of Madrid were so impressed by the epic Victoria that they decided to found an Athletica subsidiary in the Spanish capital. The team was called “Athletic Club Madrid”, and began to use the same colors as the main representative of Bilbao: red and white.
This club is now known as Atlético de Madrid.
The prominent Basque midfielder Yulen Guerrero, who played for Athletic for 14 years (all the great Europeans hunted him down in the nineties), assures that for the Lions – as the nickname of the Bilbao team – there are only two eternal rivals:The game with Barcelona is not that important to us, because Barça is just a sporting rivalry. We argue with the Society to be called the best club in the Basque Country, and in matches with Real Madrid political motives are also mixed.“.
Defender Rafael Alcorta went from Athletic to Real Madrid in 1993, and Bilbao failed to do so. On April 9, 1994 Alcorta arrived at San Mamés for the first time as a guest player. Athletic won 2: 1, shouted from the stands: “Alcorta is a traitor!“and the Basque striker Kuko Siganda, who scored his team’s second goal, running past the defenders, jokingly shouted:”Rafa, was it worth it?“The Alcorta family received threats from ETA, they called him a traitor to the Basque people.
ETA, in general, from time to time got into players, including their own. For example, the French full back of Basque origin Bixant Lizarazu (Basque – Bishente Lizarasu, with emphasis on the third syllable), became a superstar at Bayern, but before that he played a year in Bilbao, and went to train with a bodyguard. and in an armored vehicle: ETA members threatened to blow it up.
Arnaldo Otegui, a fan of the Society, a former ETA combatant and former leader of the banned Batasuna party (ETA’s political wing), spoke about how the terrorist organization thought several times about breaking El Viejo Clásico. “But we did not want casualties among the Basque population, – Otegi recalled. – And also, many of us supported Athletic and dreamed of seeing the Lions beat Real Madrid.
Perhaps the match between Real Madrid and Athletic in the last twenty years has become a duel between clubs of different coordinate systems, but only from the sporting point of view. For Bilbao, this is still a powerful rivalry, an old enemy, and a carnage where you must do everything you can to win.
