Aupa Athletic!

After spending a lovely few days with my mum and brother in Bilbao last week I’ve had to come back to the harsh reality of balancing working at the school with finishing my dissertation. However, not without a little break to watch Athletic Bilbao v. Real Madrid after a friend happened to buy too many tickets to the match so gave two tickets to Steph and I at a discounted price.

Athletic Bilbao are a big deal in the city of Bilbao. I live by the stadium and whenever there’s a match every single bar without fail will raise their flag and hundreds of people will line the street to cheer on their team, even if they don’t have a ticket to the stadium. The reason why Athletic Bilbao's matches are such a huge occasion with the residents here is that throughout its history the club has engaged in a Basque-only player policy. Ask anyone in Bilbao and they will tell you that they feel a much stronger affinity to the club and its players than a supporter of any other team because they share the same country, the same language and the same blood runs through their veins. Only selecting footballers from a limited area might make it harder to find quality but Bilbao are one of the only Spanish clubs to have never been relegated from La Liga, along with Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona.

We knew that it was going to be slightly hectic in the stadium from what we've witnessed every match day on the streets, but when we got there we were completely overwhelmed. It was chaos. There were so many people squeezed into our section, clearly too many for the number of seats and tickets available, and due to the sheer amount of bodies we never managed to find our seats. However, we did find a good standing spot which gave us a clearer view than we probably would have had if we’d been sitting, and the atmosphere was amazing.

At first, Steph and I momentarily forgot who we were supporting and we got very overexcited every time Christiano Ronaldo touched the ball. However, after some stern glances from everyone around us we realised that this probably wasn't a great idea, especially when Ronaldo scored a goal in the 2nd minute of the game, so we proudly waved our 3 euro flag which we’d bought outside of the stadium and became Athletic Bilbao’s biggest fans. By the end of the match, as well as learning many racist chants to direct towards Christiano Ronaldo we found that, despite losing 3-0, the Athletic supporters will fight until the end for their club.