Imagine Manchester City selling Haaland and De Bruyne to sign some kids from the next street over in Manchester. Or imagine Spartak Moscow deciding to not sign any foreign players and only use players from Moscow Football Schools. That sounds like an excellent fantasy or a surefire path to the amateur leagues. For Basque club Athletic Bilbao, however, this is simply their daily lives — and they’ve been doing it for over 100 years now.
An Age of Moneyball Football and Yet They Remain Different
As football turned into a game of money and large corporate entities, Athletic Bilbao chose to remain something truly special. They chose to reject the global market to maintain their identity, and what’s most astonishing is that they’ve done it quite well.
How It Works
The main rule for the club is the «Cantera» (from Spanish, quarry, school). It’s not even written into their official statutes as a formal requirement; however, everyone considers it to be a sacred requirement. For a player to be able to play for Athletic Bilbao, they must meet one of two requirements:
They were born in the Basque Country (this includes both Navarre and the French Basque Country)
They attended any Basque football club’s academy (it does not need to be the Academy of Athletic Bilbao)
This means that players like Messi, Ronaldo or Mbappe would be unable to play for Bilbao, regardless of the amount of money that was offered. The club chooses not to focus on attracting the best players in the world, but instead focuses on attracting players that have the Bilbao jersey wrapped around their hearts.
Lezama – Heart of the Club
The Lezama Academy – athletic-club.eus
When a club cannot purchase a player, it must develop its own. The Lezama Academy is one of the best youth development systems in all of the world. It is a true talent factory. From Lezama came world class goalkeepers like Kepa Arrizabalaga (the highest paid goalkeeper in history), defenders like Aymeric Laporte, and legends like Fernando Llorente and Javi Martinez.
Scouting for Athletic Bilbao covers the entire region of the Basque Country. If a young boy is talented and from the Basque Country, he will receive an invitation to attend the Lezama Academy. The club has no competition in the region as the pinnacle of any young boy’s career is to be invited to play at San Mames Stadium wearing the red and white of Athletic Bilbao.
Why Never Relegated?
Skeptics for decades predicted that this model of developing players from within the community would eventually fail. “Football has become too fast paced, you’ll run out of players,” they said. However, the facts show otherwise:
Athletic Bilbao is one of three clubs (alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona) that have never been relegated to the second division in Spain.
Bilbao competes in the European Cups almost annually.
They continue to win major trophies (Spanish Super Cup, Copa del Rey).
The reason for this success is simple: strong relationships between the players and deep sense of regional pride. While PSG tries to get all of its players to speak the same language, the players of Athletic Bilbao don’t need to speak to understand each other. They’ve all grown up together, they know what region represents, and they fight for the honor of their flag. Additionally, the energy generated by San Mames (which fans refer to as the “Cathedral”) provides the players with an additional 20% boost due to the electric atmosphere.
Williams Brothers – The Face of Modern Basques
Williams Brothers – supersport.com
For many years, Athletic Bilbao was criticized for being too insular and essentially racist. However, the modern world has changed even the most conservative institutions. The current faces of the club are brothers Iñaki and Nico Williams. Their parents were refugees from Ghana who traveled across the Sahara Desert to reach Europe. Iñaki and Nico were born and raised in Bilbao and Pamplona. They’re black, but they’re Basques.
Iñaki Williams holds an incredible La Liga record – more than 250 consecutive games missed zero times. Nico Williams is a rising star of the Spanish national team and recently helped lead the team to victory in Euro-2024. They’ve proven that to be Basque isn’t based on bloodlines or skin tone – it’s where you consider your home and where your heart resides.
Challenges of the Model
While being “special” comes with a cost…
Limited Market. The club can’t sign any players outside of the market defined by the Cantera. So if Athletic Bilbao needs a left-back and there isn’t anyone in the academy to fill the role, they can’t sign someone else. Instead, they have to try to re-train a player from another position.
Over-Paying. When a club decides to bring back a player from another club (such as from Real Sociedad), they often have to pay twice the asking price. Everyone knows Athletic Bilbao has money and therefore has no choice.
Stars Leaving. When a player becomes too good for club-level football, it is extremely difficult to retain that player. Eventually, the best players leave (such as Kepa to Chelsea, or Herrera to Manchester United).
Athletic Bilbao is a museum piece that continues to fight. A pleasant reminder of how football once was: local, proud, and family-like. Fans in Bilbao say: “We’d rather drop to Segunda with our own boys than win titles with mercenaries.” Thankfully, they do not have to decide. They play with their own – and they continue to compete with the elite.
