Popular Science ｜ Why is there a black man in Bilbao, which is not accepted by Basques？
In the last round of La Liga, Athletic Bilbao beat Cadiz 4-0 away. The club changed coaches like a knife. After marcelino took office, he even won the Spanish Super Cup with Real Madrid and Barcelona, and reached the semi-finals in the King’s Cup this season. As we all know, Bilbao has strict rules on the birth conditions of his own players, but the selection of coaches is not eclectic. However, the fat friends who occasionally pay attention to La Liga find "Hua Dian": How can there be a black player in Bilbao? Isn’t it true that non-Basque players don’t accept it? How can they accept foreigners?
The black player’s name is Iniaki Williams (above). He is not a foreigner, but a Basque. Although his parents are from Liberia, West Africa, Williams himself was born in Biscay, and even the name Iniaki is exclusive to Basques. Not only he, but Ramalho, the first black player in the history of Bilbao, is also a Basque. His father is from Angola, West Africa, but his mother is a native.
In fact, the "Basque" in the concept of Bilbao Club does not take race, nationality and place of birth as the only criteria. More than 50 foreigners (mainly British) played in Bilbao during the first 10 years of the club’s establishment. After the implementation of this self-restraint rule, seven foreigners have played in official competitions for the first team of Bilbao.
The most famous here is Lizarazu (pictured above), a famous Bayern Munich player and a member of the French champion team in the 1998 World Cup. He moved from Bordeaux to Bilbao in the summer of 1996, and only played in La Liga for one year before joining Bayern in the Bundesliga. He was born in San Juan Deluce, Basque country, France. No matter his surname is Lizarazu or Bixente, he can see that he is a Basque, so there is no pressure to play in Bilbao.
However, another the French Rappolt (below) is a bit of a detour. He was born in the southern French city of Argonne, where he received his football enlightenment. In 2009, Bilbao took a fancy to Rappolt in the International Youth Friendly Tournament. However, the player was only 15 years old at that time, which did not meet FIFA’s transfer regulations. Therefore, Bilbao temporarily "placed" him in the Bayonne Averon Club in the Basque Country of France, and it was only a few months before he was officially included in his own youth training camp. In this way, even if Rappolt is not a Basque, he also meets the requirements of "youth training player of Bilbao’s own team or other Basque teams".
Another situation is "Basque people born overseas". In fact, this is nothing new. In the first half of the 20th century, a large number of Spaniards went to Latin America with better living conditions because of domestic social unrest, and later returned to their homeland. For example, in the 1990s, the goalkeeper of Bilbao, Beullen, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but his parents were from Ghips, Basque country. Although he has Brazilian nationality, he grew up in the Basque country of Spain. Iturriaga, a Mexican midfielder who played for the team for one year in the 2006-07 season, was in a similar situation: his parents were Basques, and I returned to Bilbao at the age of 14 and entered the youth training camp.
In addition, there is Venezuela international Amore Beta (below), who entered the youth training system in Bilbao in his early years. Before he officially decided to represent Venezuela in international competitions, he had been a regular member of the Spanish national youth teams at all levels, and even was once called up by Delbosc to play in a friendly match for the adult national team, but he didn’t get a chance to play.
There is also a category of "foreigners born in the Basque country", such as Kenan Codero, a Bosnian. When his father Meho cordero played football in the Royal Society, his son Kennan was born in San Sebastian, and he was given a "Basque hukou" when he landed, not to mention that he was also trained in the youth training camps of the Royal Society and the two Basque clubs in Osasuna in recent years.
A strange example is left-back ganea who joined Bilbao in 2018. He was born in Bistrica, Transylvania, Romania. At the age of 11, he immigrated with his family to Basari, a small city in the Basque country, where he ran a cafe. He trained for three years in the satellite team Bath konya in Bilbao, and also played for the Basque U18 youth team. Although most of his professional football career was in his native Romania, his experience in Biscay during his youth training earned him "Basque identity recognition" and left a record in the history of Bilbao.
Author: Wu Yifan
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