Bilbao FC, Athletic Club, and Club Bizcaya , in 1903, with Juan de Astorquia in the center Football was introduced to
Bilbao by two distinct groups with British connections: British workers and Basque students returning from schools in Britain. In the late 19th century, Bilbao was a leading industrial town, thus becoming the home to a large British colony, mainly made up of migrant workers, including shipyard workers and miners from various areas of England, such as
Southampton,
Portsmouth, and
Sunderland. Along with coal, they brought with them (as in so many other parts of the world) the game of football. Meanwhile, sons of the
Basque educated classes, such as
Juan Astorquia, went to Britain to complete their studies, and while there they developed a deep interest in football. When they returned, they began to organize games with British workers at the
Hippodrome of Lamiako, which at the time was the home of organized football in Biscay. In 1898, Juan Astorquia and six other Basque students belonging to the Gymnasium Zamacois began to practice football in Lamiako. Three years later, in 1901, at a meeting held at the
Café García, this group of football pioneers, now larger, began conversations to become a legalized official football club, which they called
Athletic Club, using the English spelling. On 24 March 1903, Bilbao FC and its associates were officially and definitively absorbed by Athletic Club.
Pichichi and Copa del Rey The club featured prominently in early Copas del Rey. Following their triumph at the Copa de la Coronación by
Club Bizcaya, Athletic won their first Copa del Rey in
1903. After watching
the final in the Spanish capital that year, Basque students also formed an affiliated team,
Athletic Club Madrid, which later evolved into
Atlético Madrid. In
1904, holders Athletic were declared winners of the trophy after their opponents failed to turn up. In 1907, they revived the name
Club Vizcaya after entering a combined team with
La Union and were beaten in the Copa final. After a brief lull, they won again in
1910, with
Luis Astorquia as the new captain and goalkeeper. In 1911, former team captain
Alejandro de la Sota, was elected as the 7th president of the club, and he was the driving force behind the construction of the
San Mamés Stadium (architect Manuel María Smith), which opened in 1913 and soon became one of the symbols of Athletic's dominance in the 1910s, winning the Copa del Rey three times in a row between
1914 and
1916, with
Billy Barnes as coach. Between 1917 and 1919, the club went through a period of institutional crisis and during that time did not participate in the Copa del Rey, having failed to win the
regional tournament that acted as the qualifier. In 1920, with the return of Billy Barnes, Athletic once again participated in the national championship and in 1921 won the Copa del Rey again. The star of this team was
Pichichi, a prolific goalscorer who scored the first goal at the San Mamés on 21 August 1913 and a
hat-trick in the
1915 final. The last championship won by Pichichi was the 1921 Copa del Rey, before his death aged just 29 in 1922. Today, the La Liga top-scorer is declared the
Pichichi in his honour.
Fred Pentland and the first historic attack winning team. Along with fellow Basque clubs such as
Real Unión,
Arenas Club de Getxo and
Real Sociedad, Athletic was a founding member of
La Liga in 1928 and by 1930 they were joined by
CD Alavés; five of the ten clubs in the
Primera División were from the Basque Country. The saying "
Con cantera y afición, no hace falta importación" (
en: "With home-grown teams and support, there is no need for import"), made sense during these early days. In 1922, a new English coach,
Fred Pentland, arrived; in 1923, he led the club to victory in the Copa del Rey. He revolutionised the way Athletic played, favouring the short-passing game. In 1927, Pentland left Athletic but returned in 1929 and led the club to La Liga/Copa del Rey doubles in 1930 and 1931. The club won the Copa del Rey four times in a row between 1930 and 1933 and they were also La Liga runners-up in 1932 and 1933. In 1931, Athletic defeated Barcelona 12–1, the latter's worst defeat and the biggest win in LaLiga history. Athletic's success under English coaches continued with
William Garbutt. His first season in Spain was a massive success as he managed to win the
Liga that year. He had inherited a talented squad that included one of the best strikers in the club's history, known as
Primera delantera histórica (
en:
First historic attack), formed by
Lafuente,
José Iraragorri,
Bata (top scorer of LaLiga in 1930–31),
Chirri II and
Guillermo Gorostiza (top scorer of LaLiga in 1929-30 and 1931–32). Goalkeeper
Gregorio Blasco also stood out, who was the most unbeaten goalie in LaLiga on three occasions. Garbutt promoted the young
Ángel Zubieta to the first team, a player who at 17 years of age became the youngest ever to play for the Spanish national team
The team of eleven villagers In 1954, coach
Ferdinand Daučík retired the team of
second historic attack and gave way to a new generation of players. Daučík managed to form a new champion team that won the double in
1956 and two other victories in the Copa del Generalísimo in
1955 and
1958. The latter is remembered as one of the club's most important achievements because Athletic managed to beat
Di Stefano's
Real Madrid, which had just won the
European Cup and LaLiga, and the Spanish federation also ignored Athletic's request to play in a neutral field and forced the final to be played in
Chamartin (Real Madrid stadium). However, the Bilbao team won the match 2–0 with goals from
Arieta and
Mauri, and lifted the Cup in Chamartin Stadium. From that moment on, this was remembered as
el equipo de los once aldeanos (en:
the team of eleven villagers), since club president Enrique Guzmán shouted during the title celebration:
"With eleven villagers, we have beaten them!", in allusion to the club's tradition of playing only with players from its homeland. The classic team lineup was:
Carmelo;
Orue,
Garay,
Canito;
Mauri,
Maguregui,
Markaida;
Arteche,
Arieta (whom they considered Zarra's successor),
Uribe and
Gaínza. Thanks to their league title triumph, the team represented Spain in the
1956 Latin Cup, where they reached the final and lost to
AC Milan by a score of 3–1. In the same year the club also made their debut in the
European Cup, where they reached the quarterfinals after eliminating
FC Porto and
Ferenc Puskás's
Honvéd FC. They then beat
Manchester United Busby Babes 5–3 at
San Mamés Stadium, but were defeated 3–0 at
Old Trafford, in a match in which goalkeeper
Carmelo had to play almost the entire match injured because substitutions did not exist at that time.
Iribar and the first UEFA final The 1960s were dominated by Real Madrid, and Atlético went through a few years of transition in which the only figure that shone was goalkeeper
José Ángel Iribar, who became one of the club's greatest legends along with Zarra. Due to the team's bad form, the fans used to constantly repeat the phrase
Juegan Iribar y diez más (
en:
Iribar and ten more are playing). The situation improved when in
1969 Atlético won a Copa del Generalísimo and was runner-up in LaLiga in the
1969–70 season. The main stars of this team −in addition to Iribar− were the scorer
Fidel Uriarte (winner of a
Pichichi Trophy) and the winger
Txetxu Rojo. The 1970s were not much better, with only another single Copa del Generalísimo win in
1973. In December 1976, before a game against Real Sociedad, Iribar and Sociedad captain
Inaxio Kortabarria carried out the
Ikurriña (the
Basque nationalist flag), and placed it ceremonially on the centre-circle – this was the first public display of the flag since the death of
Francisco Franco. By then the Franco regime had also ended and the club reverted to using the name
Athletic. In 1977, the club reached
the final of the
UEFA Cup after eliminating teams like
AC Milan or
FC Barcelona, among others, and only losing on
away goals to
Juventus. They also reached the Copa del Rey final, which they lost to
Real Betis on penalties (Iribar missed the decisive one, which gave the Sevillians the victory), and reached third position in LaLiga. Despite these defeats, this is remembered as one of the best teams in the history of Athletic Bilbao, which included historical players of the club such as Iribar, Rojo,
Guisasola,
Alexanko,
Goikoetxea,
Irureta,
Dani or
Carlos (last player to win the
Pichichi Trophy with the club).
La Liga and Copa del Rey winners with Clemente In 1981,
Javier Clemente became manager. He put together one of the most successful teams in the club's history, the main lineup of this team was:
Zubizarreta;
Urkiaga,
Goikoetxea,
Rocky Liceranzu,
De la Fuente;
De Andrés,
Sola,
Urtubi;
Dani,
Sarabia and
Argote. In
1982–83 season, Athletic became LaLiga champion after surpassing
Santillana's
Real Madrid in the standings on the last round. The following year they won a LaLiga and Copa del Rey double. In that cup final they beat
Maradona's
FC Barcelona 1–0; the Argentine player did not take the defeat well and attacked an Athletic player, which caused a brawl between both teams. Months earlier, Goikoetxea had injured Maradona after a hard tackle from behind, from which it took him several weeks to recover, and the Bilbao native was sanctioned with 17 games without playing (although the match referee did not show him any card for this fact). In 1985 and 1986, Athletic finished third and fourth respectively. During the 1985–86 season, Clemente was fired due to a bad relationship with the team's star, Sarabia. A succession of coaches that included José Ángel Iribar,
Howard Kendall,
Jupp Heynckes and
Javier Irureta and even a returning Clemente failed to reproduce his success.
The Fernández era In 1998, coach
Luis Fernández led the club to second in La Liga and
UEFA Champions League qualification. Fernández benefited from the club adopting a more flexible approach to the
cantera. In 1995, Athletic had signed
Joseba Etxeberria from regional rivals Real Sociedad, causing considerable bad feelings between the two clubs. Etxeberria was a prominent member of the 1997–98 squad, along with
Ismael Urzaiz and
Julen Guerrero.
21st century The club narrowly avoided relegation during the
2005–06 and
2006–07 seasons, the latter being the worst in the club's history. In the
Copa del Rey, they reached their first final in 24 years,
losing 4–1 to Barcelona. Prior to the
2011–12 season, Athletic's new president, former player
Josu Urrutia, brought in coach
Marcelo Bielsa; Athletic advanced to their first European final since 1977, losing 3–0 to fellow Spanish club Atlético Madrid on 9 May in the
2012 UEFA Europa League Final at the
Arena Națională in
Bucharest. They also reached the
2012 Copa del Rey Final, losing again to Barcelona. After star midfielder
Javi Martínez moved to
FC Bayern Munich, Athletic were eliminated from the
2012–13 Europa League group stage, and were knocked out of the
Copa del Rey by Basque club
Eibar of the
third tier. Relegation was a threat until the end of the season, and the
final league game at the "old" San Mamés ended in defeat. Athletic would soon move to a new stadium, albeit in a partially completed state. Bielsa promoted young defender
Aymeric Laporte into the side, while striker
Fernando Llorente completed a
free transfer to
Juventus. After Bielsa,
Ernesto Valverde returned for a second spell as manager, and he signed or brought through several new players as Athletic came fourth in
the league, meaning a
UEFA Champions League campaign.
Ander Herrera transferred to Manchester United for €36 million deal at the end of the season. Athletic had a triumphant first full-capacity match in the new
San Mamés as they defeated
Napoli to qualify for the
Champions League group stage, however they could only finish 3rd in the group. Athletic reached the
2015 Copa del Rey Final, but once again lost to Barcelona, 3–1. In the first leg of the
2015 Supercopa de España at San Mamés, Athletic defeated Barcelona 4–0, with
Aritz Aduriz scoring a hat-trick. In the return leg at
Camp Nou, Athletic hung on with a 1–1 draw to win their first trophy since 1984. Aduriz finished with 36 goals in all competitions. Athletic advanced to the quarter-finals in the
Europa League where they were only defeated on penalties by the holders and eventual repeat winners
Sevilla FC. Valverde left his position at the end of the 2016–17 season after four years. It was confirmed that his successor would be former player
José Ángel Ziganda, moving up from
Bilbao Athletic. On 29 November the club suffered a shock defeat to
SD Formentera in the
domestic cup. At the conclusion of a poor season overall, Ziganda was dismissed and
Eduardo Berizzo was appointed. However, his spell was even less fruitful and in December 2018, having won just two of his fifteen matches at the helm and with the team in
the relegation zone, Berizzo was dismissed. B-team coach
Gaizka Garitano took over and oversaw an improvement in results, with the club moving well out of danger and narrowly missing out on a Europa League spot on the last day. The beginning of the
2019–20 season saw more consistent results. After the first five games of the season, the
Lions sat at the top of the table, their best start in 26 years. That form could not be maintained, and by the halfway point they had slipped to mid-table after several draws. However, in the
Copa del Rey, they survived two penalty shootouts against second-tier opponents and then defeated Barcelona to reach the semi-finals. The club then defeated
Granada CF in the semi-final on away goals to meet local rivals Real Sociedad in the final – which was then postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, both clubs happy to delay in the hope of supporters being able to attend the historic Basque derby occasion. This did not come to pass, and
the final was eventually played in an empty stadium on 3 April 2021, Real Sociedad emerging winners by a 1–0 scoreline. By that time, Aduriz had finally retired from playing, Garitano had been replaced as coach by
Marcelino, and the
2020–21 Supercopa de España originally intended to follow the delayed cup final was contested, Athletic defeating Real Madrid then Barcelona to claim the trophy. They also defeated Levante in the semi-final of the
2020–21 Copa del Rey to reach the final on 17 April 2021, making them the only team to take part in the showpiece event twice in as many weeks; however, Athletic lost
that final as well, to Barcelona by a 4–0 scoreline. In October 2021, a report from the
International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) showed that Athletic Bilbao and
Desna Chernihiv (Ukraine) were the only teams in European continental competitions without foreign players.They ended the season on 10th place. The next two seasons saw the same results, narrowly missing out on the Europa Conference League by finishing in 8th and consecutive Copa del Rey Semi final exits although they did finish as Supercopa de Espanã Runners-up in the 2021–22 season, defeating Atlético Madrid and losing to Real Madrid. In the 2023–24 season however, saw Athletic Bilbao end their 40-year Copa del Rey drought by winning the
2023-24 Copa del Rey against
RCD Mallorca 4–2 on penalties after a 1–1 draw in normal time and extra time. The campaign included some memorable victories, including a 4–2 win against Barcelona at home and a 4–0 aggregate win over Atlético Madrid. == Players ==