[Archived] Athletic De Bilbao Will Play The King's Cup Final In Spain

[Siriwan]

I know it's not Rovers related, but my "other" team is going to play the King's Cup (The equivalent of the FA Cup) final for the first time in 25 years. It's a formerly big club, league champion 8 times and cup's champion 24 times, but since the Bosman Law is struggling to keep its place in the top division as they only play with local players from the Basque region. Imagine the Rovers playing only with lancashire lads.

The fanbase of this team, given this strongly local characteristics, is really faithful and this success, no matter what happens in the final against Barcelona, is driving the people mad. As a proof watch this video, pay attention to the guy on the left:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbawxAG_TvY

[philipl]

That is quite something! Good luck in the Final.

[Siriwan]

That is quite something! Good luck in the Final.

Thanks! It has been really exciting... the whole city went crazy, with night-long celebrations... By the way, if you don't know him, don't forget the name Fernando Llorente, Athletic de Bilbao's striker and ace player. Already full international for Spain and I hope, Athletic's star for many years to come. A few years back I opened a thread named "A new Jon Stead is born", about him. Sadly Stead did not become a reality...

[brightonrover]

Blackburn Rovers does have quite a strong historical link with Athletic Bilbao - can any of you trivia fans say what that is?!?

[pentelrobot]

Blackburn Rovers does have quite a strong historical link with Athletic Bilbao - can any of you trivia fans say what that is?!?

Fred Pentland, William Garbutt and Howard Kendall all played for Rovers and subsequently managed coached Athletic Bilbao-or is there some other connection?

[Siriwan]

Fred Pentland, William Garbutt and Howard Kendall all played for Rovers and subsequently managed coached Athletic Bilbao-or is there some other connection?

There is a stronger connection indeed.

[rover6]

Were Blackburn men amongst the British workers who set the club up?

[brightonrover]

Well, I was thinking what Pentelrobot has said but if there are more connections, I'd be fascinated to hear them!

[Siriwan]

I'll tell you the connection: Athletic Bilbao was founded in 1898, the second football club in Spain and the first not founded by and for British although, at the beginning, British did play for the club. They played in an all-white outfit, but in 1902 more clubs had been stablished and the members thought in changing the club's colours. So they looked for a role model, and they found it in the World's best club at the time: Blackburn Rovers. So they stablished a relationship with the Blackburn members and from time to time one Athletic Bilbao's representative travelled to Blackburn to buy kits. So Athletic Bilbao played in Blackburn colours and actually wearing their kits. That lasted from 1902 to 1910. During that year one Bilbao's member traveled to England and there are various theories to explain what happened then. Some people say he was too lazy to take the train to Blackburn and remained in Southampton, and some people say Rovers ran out of kits, so he had to return to Southampton to take the boat back to Bilbao. So he purchased Southampton kits, for Athletic Bilbao and for their second club in Madrid, the future "Atlético de Madrid", which chose to keep Blackburn's shorts to have a difference. That's why Athletic and Atlético wear their current colours. But during this period, from 1902 to 1910, Rovers and Athletic were brother clubs.

As a way to have this connection to history alive, the traditional away kit is that of white and blue halves, but not now (they change it from time to time but always come back to the Blackburn's kit).

Here I show you two pics I have taken barely 15 minutes ago:

[DanLad]

Wow!

I'll now be following Bilbao's results!

Thanks for the info, Siriwan.

[Derby Blue]

Went to watch the Barca v Bilbao game at the Nou Camp on saturday, shame I wasn't aware of the connection before. Chatted to a few Athletic fans on the metro on the way to the game and they seemed really top blokes. Good knowledge of the English game and were realistic in the fact that they didn't expect to get anything out of the game that night. beaten 2-0 but could and probably should have been a lot worse for them.

Will look out for their results in future and good luck in the cup final.

[roversnick]

video via link is dead

[Siriwan]

Went to watch the Barca v Bilbao game at the Nou Camp on saturday, shame I wasn't aware of the connection before. Chatted to a few Athletic fans on the metro on the way to the game and they seemed really top blokes. Good knowledge of the English game and were realistic in the fact that they didn't expect to get anything out of the game that night. beaten 2-0 but could and probably should have been a lot worse for them.

Will look out for their results in future and good luck in the cup final.

The knowledge of the English game doesn't surprise me. Athletic de Bilbao's the team with closest connections with English football. The club originated when the local lads saw the Brits, workers at the Bilbao's steel industry, play games of football. So they decided to form a team and challenge the British. Of course, they lost 6-0. But the seeds were planted. And when the club was formally stablished, a few British played for us: Alfred Mills, Langford, Myer, Evans... Many of them stayed in Bilbao for the rest of their life. For example, during the Spanish Civil War, an old Langford refused to be evacuated, saying he preferred "Bilbao with bombs and wine than London without bombs nor wine".

The connections don't stop there. Fred Pentland is the most successful Athletic's coach ever. He won two Championships and five cups with us, including the 29-30 championship, winning undefeated.

It is said that Athletic's stadium, San Mamés, is the most "british" stadium in the League. Indeed it has the appearance of a British stadium, with the crowd very close to the pitch, and the fans are passionate. And great admirers of English football, it is said also that Athletic de Bilbao, no matter the coach in charge, always plays "English" style.

I support this team because it's my hometown team, of course, but also makes me proud that we managed to play all the Spanish championships never being relegated and winning 8 championships and 24 Cups with only local players. It's something very special and of course makes possible a strong identification of the players with the supporters.

About the last game against Barcelona, the result was due to various reasons. The first one is that this season the club has focused absolutely in the Cup, resting players during the championship matches. The objective has been achieved, being already classified to the next UEFA Cup, and we only have to focus in avoiding relegation now. Barcelona came from a very bad streak and had to win that game as a must. And we had injured players so all the factors were against us.

Here are a few videos if you wanna see the crowd and a summary of the Sevilla's game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxy7ifwvEQU

This is the summary of the game, it's a bit long. But it shows the three goals and the crowd celebrating at the end.

We have two outstanding players, midfielder Javi Martínez and striker Fernando Llorente. Javi Martínez is 20 years old, and will be international soon I suppose. He's the one who scores the first goal. Fernando Llorente, international for Spain, gives the assists for the first and third goals, and scores the second. He's a player to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA06xRT50b8

Here are the supporters before, during and after the game.

And this is the video I posted in the first post. I can't approve that, but he was drunk, and it was funny...

Sorry if you think that all of these is of no interest.