My unforgettable Basque experience
How much do you know about the Basque Country? Prior to my recent trip to the region with LALIGA, I wasn’t too familiar with Pais Vasco, as it’s known in Spanish, but this was an experience unlike any other I’ve had.
Having enjoyed some real bucket list moments with LALIGA, who’ve previously hosted me on press trips to Madrid and Barcelona, I was filled with excitement when they contacted me late last year to ask if I was interested in joining other journalists from around the world on a visit to the Basque Country in January. In 2019, I got to watch Atletico Madrid host Real Madrid at the Metropolitano Stadium and, in 2021, I was at the Camp Nou to see Barcelona beat Valencia 3-1. This recent trip, though, was my favourite yet. Several times a season, LALIGA invite journos of various ages from different parts of the globe to Spain, and these excursions are generally centred around specific matches and events. This time it was the Basque derby, or the derbi Vasco, a contest between Athletic Club and Real Sociedad that I’ve admittedly only followed sporadically from here in South Africa. That’s going to change, of course. Driving through Bilbao, the largest city in the province of Biscay, I’m immediately swept up. Nicknamed “el bocho”, which translates to “the hole” an Uber driver later tells me, vast and peaky mountains wrap around this metropolis. That same Uber driver, Juan Jose, tells me Bilbao hasn’t always looked this way, and that the city’s process of deindustrialisation since the 1990s can be thanked for the personality and colour we see there today. He takes out his phone to show me a ‘before and after’ picture. He is a proud local, who seems delighted he has someone to brag about Bilbao to. He feels he belongs and wants me to feel like I do too. He talks about his love for Athletic Club, whom he calls “the best club in the world”, and the city’s relationship with food, which he insists is more important than money and family. “Here in Bilbao, we don’t eat to live. We live to eat!”, he says with a beaming smile as he looks at me in his rear-view mirror. That wasn’t an exaggeration! On this trip with LALIGA, during which our activities included visiting Athletic Club’s training ground Lezama, where we learn all about the club’s strict policy of only employing Basque players, going on a stadium tour of Real Sociedad’s Reale Arena in the breathtaking Donostia-San Sebastian, and meeting executives and former players from other teams in the Basque region, we’re spoilt with great food at good restaurants. It’s in these moments we get to learn about one another, and about the Basque Country in conversations with the LALIGA representatives accompanying us. We learn the Basque language is not in any way related to Spanish, and that Spanishspeaking people outside of the Basque region don’t speak nor understand it. We learn it is one of the oldest languages in the world, and that the best linguists can do is guess its origins. This unique area, that straddles the border between Spain and France, is quickly growing on me. I’ve come for the football, but I’m staying for its culture… I wish!
After an action-packed Thursday and Friday, we’re all set for the big game on the Saturday at San Mames, a stadium I can see from my hotel room. It’s a five-minute walk, but the plan on matchday is to be taken to different spots for drinks and pinchos, which are small snacks typically eaten in bars, and to be shown around by a tour guide. As we move from place to place, the streets surrounding Athletic Club’s home ground fill up as kick-off approaches. I expected a sea of red, the colour Athletic has donned for 114 years, but it is instead a collision of red and blue, but that collision is far from antagonistic. It is warm and friendly. Friends and family attend the Basque derby together in opposing shirts. The only animosity I experienced from supporters at this game was directed towards the players on the field, but that didn’t get in the way of an electric atmosphere, helped by Athletic attacker Alejandro Berenguer’s opener in the 30th minute. He scored again 12 minutes later, sending Ernesto Valverde into half-time as the happier of the two coaches. The game ends 2-1 in favour of Athletic, with Spanish international Mikel Oyarzabal’s late goal proving to be nothing more than a consolation for Sociedad. By the way, I’ve never witnessed a home crowd get louder after conceding a goal that could have changed the course of the match. I anticipated jeers in response to the home team’s defensive lapse; I thought they’d boo! Instead, they applauded. They, around 50 000 people, wanted to show their team they were still behind them and they’d be there until the referee blew his final whistle. This sense of togetherness, this sense of community, extends throughout Bilbao and the greater Basque region. I felt it in every street I walked down, in every conversation I had with locals, and in every meal I tasted. People here are proud and devoted, and that is a beautiful and rare thing to witness in a sport that, one could argue, sometimes feels like it is losing its identity.
Thank you, or as they say in Basque, eskerrik asko.