What a great week it has been for our sister club, Athletic Bilbao

What a fantastic few days it has been for Athletic Bilbao these past few days. Firstly they reached the final of the Copa del Rey by beating Espanol Barcelona, thereby destroying the dream of a Espanol v FCB final, and tonight they played with wonderful composure and style to beat Real Madrid. Moreover, there is a wonderful talent emerging there - Inaki Williams who tonight looked far better than the likes of Gareth Bale and Ronaldo!!! And compared to other top tier teams around Europe they have assembled the team cheaply, and probably costs less than the likes of QPR´s, Leicester and several in the Championship like Norwich and Bournemouth!!

 

Although their structure is self imposed, it just goes to prove that with good coaching that even with a relative small pool of talent to chose from you can compete at the highest level.
Whilst that limitation will stop them from sustained challenges for honours I think they're a great example of how to run a club (less the xenophobia)

 

Why are they our sister club?

 

Among others, the club was founded by shipyard workers from Southampton. And their home colours are the same as ours.

 

Interesting, I didn't know that.

 

Blimey Chilco...you are a mind of information...........

 

Wow, this is something new to me
Need to do some historical research but would be great to have this strong link to a Spanish club like this

 

I am surprised that so many have said they didn't know that. It's been mentioned a few times on the forum.

#plastics.

 

And JCLs. I thought it was common knowledge.

 

They also dropped the 'o' in Athletico to symbolise their English roots.

 

Or even a mine.

 

Athletic is the Basque spelling I think.

 

I always thought it was Sunderland...?

 

That's a counter argument. However, the AB representative would have had to go out of his way to call in at Sunderland. The natural merchant port to all points south was/is Southampton.

 

According to this website the English spelling was adopted by the students who had studied in England and set up the club.

http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/athletic-bilbao-football-club/

 

Football clubs called Athletico/Atletico, Sporting or Racing, all have English ties I believe.

 

Really..? That's interesting. Care to elaborate..?

 

Sorry, that is all I have.


Couldn't find source for my statement, but interestingly teams called Athletico or Sporting are or are derived from multisport clubs.

 

Not sure about Racing or Atletico as prefixes but I know Bilbao are Athletic rather than Atletico to reflect their English origins.

 

Genoa CFC in Serie A are still known in Italy as Genoa Cricket and Football Club, having been founded by a Londoner, James Richardson Spensley.