BASQUE IN THE GLORY

Four decades ago, Athletic Club took the fight for Spanish supremacy to Real Madrid and Barcelona. Showing spirit and skill, the Bilbao boys won La Liga... and then defended it, too

- Leo Moynihan

Like so many love affairs, it started with a dance. Like rather fewer love affairs, it finished with a mass brawl.

From the spring of 1982, when the England national side visited Athletic Club in Bilbao and were welcomed by a traditional Basque jig called an aurresku, to the spring of ’84, when the Copa del Rey final between Athletic and Barcelona ended in a punch-up that belonged in a western, the people of Bilbao were given a football team they still passionately adore today. This was a team its supporters could believe in, fanatically cheer and ultimately cherish forever; a team that would rise up and take on Spain’s best.

It wouldn’t be easy, it wouldn’t always be pretty and occasionally it even turned violent, but take them on they bloody well did.

INSPIRED BY SIR BOBBY

On March 23, 1982, Ron Greenwood’s Three Lions travelled to Bilbao. His side would soon be playing their opening World Cup games in the Spanish city, and Athletic’s testimonial for long-serving winger Txetxu Rojo offered a useful recce. It was the first time England had faced an overseas club team, and having been accompanied onto the pitch by a brass band and that aurresku dance traditionally used to salute distinguished dignitaries, they played out a fascinating encounter.