At the weekend, the Spanish soccer club Athletic Bilbao finally put a stop to decades of heartbreak, and now the team and its fans are ready to enjoy a celebration that is unlike any other on the water. As a result of the fact that it has been forty years since the Lehoiak (which translates to “Lions”) last won a major trophy, the famed river barge that was used to parade the club’s most recent victory has been retired to the maritime museum in the city.
However, the barge, which is referred to as “La Gabarra” in Basque, is once again touching the water after Bilbao won the Copa del Rey on Saturday. The success came after a tight penalty shootout victory over Mallorca. This victory was the club’s first major trophy since it won the league and cup double in the 1983-1984 season.
Despite the fact that it has been a long-standing tradition for quite some time, it is a tradition that has only been observed twice in the history of the club.
After Athletic won the La Liga title for the first time in 27 years, the barge made its premiere in 1983. At the time, there were approximately one million people along the banks of the River Nervión to celebrate the victory.
Cecilio Gerrikabeitia, one of the club’s directors, came to the conclusion that the celebration of the victory on the balcony of City Hall, which had been the custom up to that point, would not be sufficient. He was looking for a means to elevate the spirits of the city in the wake of the economic upheaval that the city had been undergoing.
As the 1980s progressed, the city started to transition away from the heavy industrial activity that had been the foundation of its economy. More particularly, steel plants and shipyards were the primary contributors to this shift.
This was hastened in 1991 when the Basque government agreed to an agreement to create a new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The new museum would hold some of the iconic artwork that is housed in the well-known museum in New York.
According to the website of Athletic, Gerrikabeitia was listening to a traditional Basque song that included the following lyrics: “Down the Nervión River, sailed a barge, rumba la rum…” In the past, barges played a significant role in Bilbao’s industrial sector, since they were responsible for transporting iron ore throughout the city.
Subsequently, after Gerrikabeitia’s “aha!” moment, one of the barges was renamed “Athletic,” and it was used to transport the players and the trophy across the city. This was undoubtedly a novel approach to the open-top bus parades that the majority of clubs around the world utilize to celebrate their victories.
On the other hand, Athletic is without a doubt one of the most distinctive football clubs in the entire world.
Its official name is Athletic Club, and it is well-known for its “cantera” policy, which states that the team will only use soccer players who were born or raised in the Basque Country. The Basque Country is a region that spans the border between Spain and France and spans approximately 21,000 square kilometers (approximately 8,100 square miles), which is slightly smaller than New Jersey.
The Basque city of Pamplona was the place where Iñaki spent his childhood when his parents relocated from Bilbao. It was during his time playing in the youth team of the local club CD Pamplona that Athletic took notice of him. He became a member of the Lehoiak when he was 18 years old, and he made his debut with the squad when he was 20 years old.
Nico, on the other hand, was born in Pamplona and later began his football career with Osasuna’s juvenile setup. At the age of ten, he joined Athletic after having previously played for the CD Pamplona minor club.
Iñaki has been a part of three of Bilbao’s previous six finals, which the club has lost before Sunday’s victory, which was a cathartic victory. In recent years, Bilbao has experienced its fair share of heartache, losing its previous six finals.
After the penalty shootout, the siblings embraced each other with tears in their eyes. Iñaki then proceeded to lay a kiss on his younger brother’s face while they were having their photographs made with the trophy.
A total of almost 80,000 supporters of Athletic made the over 900-kilometer (about 560-mile) trek from Bilbao to Seville in order to attend the Copa final. Additionally, the renowned San Mamés stadium, which has a capacity of 53,000, was completely sold out, and the match was shown on large screens located around the stadium.
Following the triumph, the Spanish sports newspaper Diario AS published an article proclaiming, “Athletic touches the sky.” “Again, after forty years, we are champions.”
The iconic “Athletic” was lowered into the Nervión on Monday, and admirers crowded the river to get a glimpse of a barge that had been used for the last time before many of them were even born.On the website of the regional government, it is stated that it is one of the most autonomous areas in Spain and that it possesses its own language, education system, and police force.
Twenty-five percent of Basques polled felt more Basque than Spanish, while twenty-six percent felt totally Basque, as indicated by the 2019 Euskobarometer, which is a survey that was carried out by the University of the Basque Country and examines various levels of public opinion.
Not only is it astonishing that the club continues to adhere to the policy in this day and age of exorbitant transfer costs and celebrity footballers, but it is also remarkable that the club continues to be competitive.
The eight La Liga titles that Bilbao has won are the fourth most in the history of Spanish soccer. Only Barcelona has won more Spanish Cups than the 24 victories that the Zuri-gorriak (the Red and Whites) have achieved. Furthermore, the Basque club has never been demoted from the highest level of Spanish football.
The policy, despite the fact that it is unquestionably limiting in light of the present financial climate in football, fosters a one-of-a-kind sense of togetherness and oneness between players and supporters that cannot be found anywhere else.
This closeness was represented in the passionate celebrations of the Williams brothers, Iñaki and Nico, who were born in the Basque Country to Ghanaian parents. They have experienced the highs and lows, but the majority of the time it has been the lows, of playing for Athletic Club together.