Basque-ing at The Cathedral

Cantera, literally meaning “quarry” in Spanish, is a term used in Spain to refer to youth academies and also used to refer to the geographical area that clubs recruit players from.

With a distinguished legacy and a long list of accomplishments, Athletic Bilbao have firmly established themselves in Spanish football history. The Basque side is one of the most successful clubs in Spain, with only the two Madrid clubs and Barcelona having had more success in the La Liga and is only one of only three clubs to have never suffered relegation from the top division.

However, what really sets apart this club is their rigid, almost parochial transfer policy which makes them one of the most exclusive clubs in the entire world. The club policy, succinctly states: Con cantera y afición, no hace falta importación, meaning With home-grown teams and supporters, there is no need for imports. Athletic Bilbao is famous among football circles for being one of the only clubs in the world that insists on signing only local players to their team. To play for Bilbao is to represent the Basque Country itself, an autonomous community of Spain, and one which fields its own national football side. And when a club alludes to national pride, would it not be an impropriety to let a foreigner be a part of such a coterie, such is the belief the Basques hold.

Which then leads to the question, what is the Basque Country. The Basque Country is made up of three provinces: Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Araba. While the province of Navarre was left out of the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country, the Basques, however, consider the province of Navarra as part of their ancestral homeland. These provinces, as well as two other enclaves in the Castilian and Cantabrian regions along with three minor provinces in the Aquitaine in France, are considered to comprise the Basque Country, or “Euskal Herria: Land of the Basque-Speaking People”.

With their unique, almost unprecedented transfer policy, Bilbao have side-stepped the two major issues that Europe’s top clubs are facing with the governing body, UEFA – the Financial Fair Play rules and the Home Grown quota. While the former is proposed to come into effect at the start of the 2013-14 season and aims at making football a more sustainable sport; the latter has been in effect in European competitions for a considerable period now and is gaining more acceptance within domestic leagues. The English FA’s decision to impose its own Home Grown player rules, in its own words, to produce and promote top home-grown talent came into being during the 2010-11 season.

Scouting for young talent and promoting them through the ranks has always been a tenet adhered to by the world’s top clubs. La Masia, De Toekomst, Sporting Alochete, and the academies of Arsenal, Manchester United and Bayern Munich are all recognized as the top producers of budding footballers. However, taking into view the astringent credo followed at Bilbao and considering the fact that their talent pool is limited to those from within the Basque Country (in recent years, the club has relaxed its policy, recruiting those of Basque origin), Bilbao’s eight La Liga titles and 23 Copas Del Rey is a phenomenal achievement, perhaps one which will be unparalleled, in terms of achieving success by promoting only local talent.

Bilbao, being the most prominent Basque club, has a fierce and loyal fan base. San Mamés, plays home to the Los Leones, the name earned because their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés (Saint Mammes). Mammes was an early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans. The lions refused to eat Mammes and he was later made a saint. The San Mamés Stadium is hence nicknamed The Cathedral. And it makes it that much more joyous for the supporters to watch their players, in a very literal sense, don the red and white colors of Bilbao. Says Jose Angel Iribar, the club’s legendary goalkeeper in the Sixties and Seventies in a bullish tone: “Our cantera (youth academy) is still one of the strongest in Spain. The spirit among young men who grow up together playing for the club they supported as boys is something every club envies.”

Many of their former players, legends of the game such as Rafael Pichichi Moreno, Ricardo Zamora, Telmo Zarra and Jose Angel Iribar, live on in the memory of the fans, and some 110 years after their foundation Athletic Bilbao have maintained a tradition of fielding only players native to the Basque country or local talents who have come through their youth academy. While they have not had much success in recent years, Athletic have remained faithful to their home-grown policy, and reached some impressive heights, such as the Copa del Rey final in 2009 and 2012 and Europa League final in 2012.

With Athletic Bilbao’s young talents Iker Muniain, Oscar de Marcos and Javi Martinez working together with their experienced performers Fernando Llorente and Fernando Amorebieta (who interestingly is a Venezuelan of Basque ancestry), the future holds exciting prospects for the Basque outfit and even if Bilbao were to fall victim of their utopian principle, they will remain an exclusive club, football’s ultimate romantics.