Athletic Club famously have a philosophy unlike any other in the world. Usually referred to (a little too) simply as a Basque-only policy, only players who were born, raised or developed in the Basque Country — the seven provinces that straddle the Spanish-French border — can play for the Bilbao-based club.
With a population of just more than 3.1 million (and just under 2.2 million if counting the four Spanish provinces) that policy imposes obvious limitations upon them. But it gives far more than it takes.
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Ander Herrera knows all too well about the mystique of the club. Born in Bilbao, he moved away at the age of four because his dad Pedro became the sporting director at Real Zaragoza, where he once played. Ander therefore grew up supporting Zaragoza, made his professional debut there, and has since enjoyed stellar stints at Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain. He would love to go back to Zaragoza one day.
“One of the best memories I have in footballer as a player and a fan is the 3-2 win over Real Madrid at Montjuic in the 2004 Copa del Rey final,” Herrera says. “I cried when [Luciano] Galletti scored the winner.”
But being born in Bilbao also means that Herrera could play for Athletic, even if he didn’t grow up a fan. He did so from 2011-2014 and has now returned on loan from PSG for this season. For all that he achieved elsewhere — more than 500 games, two league titles, four national cups, a Europa League, a Champions League final — for all that he didn’t support them, Athletic stands apart.
“Juan Mata is a Real Oviedo fan and I talk to him about Athletic a lot,” Herrera says of his former Man United teammate. “I always tell him that it seems like a pity to me that he hadn’t been born in, oh I don’t know, Renteria. That way he could have had the chance to experience this club, to live it. He’s my friend and it makes me a little sad that he never had the chance.”
Renteria is a not especially remarkable town an hour or so west of Bilbao, not far from the French border, with a population of 39,355 people. It’s just the first place that comes to Herrera’s mind, it could be Renteria or anywhere, anywhere in the Basque Country at least. That way, Mata would have been able to play for Athletic — and that, Herrera insists, is pretty much the best thing there is in football.
This, Herrera says sitting at the club’s Lezama training ground under the famous arch brought here from the old San Mames stadium — the place where everyone at the club trains daily, from the youngest kid in the youth system to the first team footballers, both men and women — is the most romantic club in the world. A succesful one, too. Only Real Madrid and Barcelona can match their record of having played their entire history in Spain’s first division.
Ahead of Athletic’s game at Barcelona this Sunday (LIVE on ESPN+, 3 p.m. ET), Herrera talks with ESPN’s Martin Ainstein for a new episode of The Bicycle Diaries about the club’s unique expectations, his time at PSG, and which players and coaches he’s learned most from.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
ESPN: How can you explain what makes Athletic so special?
Herrera: I haven’t been at every club and surely there will be clubs that still respect their legends, their fans, their players, but it is true that this club is special. You can’t deny that. I’m a Zaragoza fan from the day I was born, but I would like my club to be like this one. In Zaragoza, I hold Athletic as an example: an example of what it means to love what you are, what you stand for, to love and protect your people. To see your own as the best — even if you know it’s not true.
Why has Athletic gone its whole history without being relegated to to the second division, why does it have consideration across the world, why do players keep coming through? Because of that love and that belief, even if it is not true, that there’s no one better than you. I would like my club, the club of my heart which is Zaragoza, to be a little bit more like this one. It’s a pleasure to be part of this club. I enjoy every day.
ESPN: Do you see the Basque-only policy ever changing?
Herrera: I had this conversation the other day with the physios, people who have been here for ever. I’ve asked: ‘What do you prefer? Change the philosophy or have Athletic get relegated to the second division one year?’ And the response was unanimous: go down. You can’t lose that philosophy because that’s what makes the club special. That’s what makes the fan feel so identified with the club: because the fan knows that the guy in the team is his cousin, his uncle, his nephew, the guy he went to school with.
You’re at the ground watching the kid from your neighbourhood, people who grew up around you. The issue of whether the philosophy should change could be a thorny issue in Bilbao but I think the philosophy can’t be lost ever. For me it’s non-negotiable. All the members I know feel that way. The loveliest thing for them is the philosophy, that they chose to compete like this many years ago and they still do. And I think that goes in the DNA of Basque players, I really think so. The way we compete.
ESPN: What does it mean to you to return after time at Man United and PSG?
Herrera: I was very happy here. I was here for three fantastic years. As well as a footballer, you feel fulfilled as a person. To see the respect the kids have for the first team players, to see the affection of the people, to see how close that relationship is. One of the first days I trained here there were 2,000 or 3,00 fans and at the end six or seven players stopped and signed autographs for every single one of them. The club orders them to but it’s not an obligation. That’s part of why and how the philosophy survives.
One day, hopefully, this kids can be here at Lezama or play for the first team. It’s difficult to express in words what I felt on my first day [back] at San Mames. The reception was fantastic. It’s perfect for me to join the club in this moment, with the generation of players: [they’re] very, very talented.
ESPN: Athletic’s unique identity, the community around it, must bring with it a special pressure?
Herrera: At bad moments, yes. I remember my second year with [former Athletic manager Marcelo] Bielsa. We had reached two finals the first season but that season we were flirting with relegation and the pressure is huge. You never want to be the one that goes down in history [as the first Athletic team to be relegated]. And I always say that in Bilbao everyone is an Athletic fan and has a view, all the way to the 73-year-old neighbour on the fifth floor, who has been a nurse all her life. She too is a ‘coach.’ ‘I’d pay this guy’, ‘I’d do that’.
But, I tell you what: bendita presion. It’s lovely to live in a society that feels such a deep connection to its football team, that’s so committed to Athletic Club. But you can’t hide that it brings pressure. There’s no club I have been at that is as ‘present’ within its environment, its society. I don’t think it’s about being the only team in the city, either; it’s more than that. It’s special, deeper.
Maybe I could compare it to Barcelona a little bit: even the political element is there. It’s important for people within politics to be seen to be tuned into what’s happening at Athletic, to be involved — without getting into whether it’s this party or that one, it’s significant.
