Athletic Club and the ultimate quest for the final

Facing Real Madrid in a final may be prestigious at first sight, but it’s never a gift. Throughout its history, the club from the Spanish capital has reached the final of the Champions League sixteen times, formerly known as the European Cup of Champions Clubs. At this stage of the most prestigious of European cups, the people of Madrid have a terrifying record of thirteen victories for only three defeats. On the other hand, their balance sheet remains less sharp on a national scale. Of thirty-nine Spanish Cup finals, Madrid have won just under half with nineteen trophies. And Athletic Club played a major role in this negative balance.

Five wins to nil for Athletic since 1916

In the European Super Cup n Spain, the merengue harvest is more honorable with ten successes in fifteen finals. But in fact, Athletic turns into a pet peeve of the White House when starting the last step before the title. In nine direct confrontations, the Leones won six times, including five times consecutively in 1916, 1930, 1933, 1943 and 1958. Since the latter date, the two teams have never faced each other in the final. On the other hand, the last opposition between the two teams in a Spanish Super Cup dates back to… 2021, when the Basques took the best of Real in the semi-finals of the competition (2-1), all before lifting the trophy against FC Barcelona (3-2).

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So how does Athletic Club manage to tame the Real in a knockout competition? The answer lies, as so often, in the roots of the club. “We have won thirty-five titles in one hundred and twenty years of existence, but the longest tournaments are those that most require a rich and quality workforce, explained Aitor Elizegi, current president of the Athletic Club, in an interview granted to the SO FOOT site last February. Our DNA is more suitable short tournaments for all or nothing, because twenty-seven of our trophies come from this format. We are comfortable when it comes to fighting in overtime or penalty shootouts, because it conveys values ​​close to our identity.”

Number 10 of the Athletic Club, Iker Muniain told an anecdote revealing these famous values ​​when celebrating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Lezama training center in 2021: “When I was changing in the youth team locker room, the word ATHLETIC was written vertically, and each letter had a meaning horizontally: Ambition, Work, Humility, Loyalty, Effort, Tenacity, Involvement and ‘Compromiso’ (translated as commitment)”. Eight meaningful words that help to better understand the notion of dedication that young footballers must be ready to do for a club not quite like the others.

The Old Classic and the best jams

Aware of the chance that a final can bring in order to inflate the club’s record, Athletic Club manages to transform the tense character of a finale in opportunity to crunch to the fullest. Also, the oldest club in the Basque Country clings to its rich history when it comes to facing Real Madrid. The meeting between the two teams, traditionally called “El Viejo Clásico” (The Old Classic, in French), is the second most played meeting in the history of Spanish football, only a few units behind the legendary Real-Barça (240 against 247 official matches). Too often overshadowed by the two giants of Spanish football, Athletic Club is in fact the third titan of La Liga since the club forms, along with Real and Barça, a sacred triangle having participated in all editions of the Spanish championship since its creation in 1929.

In this, respect for traditions becomes a fundamental condition for the balance of the Basque institution. The appointment of Marcelino Garcia Toral as head coach since January 2021 goes in this direction. In 2019, the Asturian coach was in charge of FC Valencia and managed to reach the final of the King’s Cup against Barça. Behind the scenes, his Singaporean boss Peter Lim then asked him to focus his end-of-season efforts on the championship with a view to qualifying for the Champions League, synonymous with a significant influx of money, even if it meant putting the final on the line. second plan. But on the ground, Marcelino does indeed want to field the best possible team for this prestigious final. The rest will prove him right: first, Valencia beat Barça 2-1 and offered themselves a trophy after eleven years of scarcity, then the Chés qualified for the next C1 on the gong thanks to a fourth place in the league ahead of Getafe and Sevilla FC.

Athletic belongs to the people, to the socios, not to a billionaire

Despite this positive balance sheet on all fronts, Marcelino nevertheless finds himself dismissed from the September, with Lim wanting to put his decision-making ego before the sporting interests of the club and probably thinking that Marcelino was not irreplaceable. Three years later, the Spanish club has not yet recovered from this incredible departure since the executives of the workforce such as Geoffrey Kondogbia, Dani Parejo or Kevin Gameiro quickly left, followed by the great hopes Ferran Torres or Kang- In Lee. Moreover, the public of Mestalla is always in open conflict with the owner of the club.

“This type of management model will never exist here , confided Marcelino in an interview for the magazine SO FOOT published last December. Athletic belongs to the people, to the socios, not to a billionaire. The club is an integral part of Basque society, and that’s why feelings are so strong. And that’s above all…” Therefore, this collaboration between Marcelino and the Athletic Club looks like a perfect marriage and the two lovebirds could see themselves celebrating their first anniversary by retaining their title of winner of the Super Cup in 2022. In the opposite camp, Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid would do well to be wary of it more than reason…

Marcelino

Credit: Getty Images

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