For fans across the world, football has long been a game through which they can seek a subconscious identity. Through what their clubs represent and what they stand for, fans look to find themselves somewhere there, and through appropriation, it becomes an extension of themselves. With that in mind, the potential success of a club like Athletic Bilbao will send a lasting message across the globe—largely because of its distinct social identity in Spain.
Build, Break, Fix: Los Leones’ recent past
Following the exit of Ernesto Valverde, the Basque club finished in the top ten on two occasions. While the stints of Marcelo Bielsa and Valverde in the previous decade were almost like beautiful dawn after uncertain dusk, times under José Ángel Ziganda, Eduardo Berizzo, and Gaizka Garitano were the opposite. Slowly yet steadily, though, things seem to be back on track for Los Leones under the 56-year-old Asturian, Marcelino García Toral.
The most formative periods of the modern-day Basque club came under the tutelage of the workmanlike Bielsa and the more direct yet behaviorally toned down Valverde. The club reached the Europa League final in 2012 after famously beating Manchester United at Old Trafford on the way. While Athletic finished 10th and 12th under Bielsa, the Argentine established an overarching ideology at the club and created a spine of players that would help Valverde achieve an impressive top-four finish, including one Aritz Aduriz, who ended up as the club’s top-scorer every year between 2012 and 2018 and was the bane of Blaugrana in the Basque club’s famous Supercopa win of 2015.