Adama Boiro, 22, was born in Dakar (Senegal), but lived in Pamplona from the age of four until Athletic paid Osasuna his two million euro release clause. Álvaro Djaló, 25, was born in Madrid, although he moved to Bilbao with his family a few months later. His dream was to play for Athletic, but no one appreciated his qualities until he decided to travel to Portugal, at his own risk, and play for several clubs. Sporting Braga signed him; last year he scored a goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League and, finally, Athletic took notice of him. They paid 15 million euros for his transfer.
The two, along with Iñaki Williams, formed an unprecedented line-up for the red-and-white team against Valencia, with three black players. Then Nico, the star of the team, came off, and Adu Ares, Djaló’s cousin, remained on the bench. “We will see three, four and more,” says Fernando García Macua, former president of Athletic. “It is quite normal, because there is more and more immigration and fewer people are born in the Basque Country. At the club, the presence of footballers of African or Latin American origin in the lower teams is totally normalized, and whoever has to get to the top, will get there.”
During Macua’s tenure, the first black player made his debut for Athletic in February 2008, Jonás Ramalho, born in Barakaldo, and who at just 14 years old played a friendly under Joaquín Caparrós. “I’m from Biscay,” the player said in an interview with Panenka magazine. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what colour you are. The fact of having been born here already makes you Basque.” And he added: “I’m super proud to have been the first black kid to play for Athletic, to have contributed to normalising the situation, to breaking down that barrier, to having opened that door, to the fact that Williams is now playing there and people see it as completely normal, to see that there are black kids in the youth team and from other areas.” García Macua recalls that, then, more than a decade ago, “there was no debate, no response, although there was quite a bit of curiosity because it was the first time.” Ramalho later played in La Liga under Marcelo Bielsa.
Philosophy or act of faith
Xabier Aierdi, who was director of the Department of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country and founder of the Basque Immigration Observatoryalready warns, at the beginning of the conversation, that he, as an Athletic fan, is against the philosophy of playing only with Basque footballers, “because it is not a philosophy, but an act of faith, although after winning the Cup many opportunists come out to remind me of it”. He points out that with this policy of the club, accepted by the great majority of the members, they have become “experts in cheating at solitaire”. And he argues: “We have been changing. If two from Bermeo come out like Unai Gómez and Jauregizar, and one from Pamplona like Prados, we will keep going, but change is inexorable, it will come. Sooner or later it will go down that path”.
And, of course, according to Aierdi, there will be more and more players with African or Latin American ancestry: “with the birth rates in the Basque Country, we are going to need around 400,000 foreigners in the next few years. And hopefully we will have a Moroccan and a Latin kid, we will win a couple of cups and more people will join.” Because, according to the sociologist and immigration expert, “however much people resist, someone has to take care of your mother, and take jobs that nobody wants. It is an irrefutable logic.”
In the Basque Country, with 2,213,993 inhabitants, according to INE data at the end of 2022 (2,108,281 in 2002), there are 184,617 foreigners, 8.3% of the immigrant population, the majority are from Central and South America (73,093); 49,318 are African. There were only 7,114 20 years ago, when foreigners were 1.82% of the population. The figures are similar in Navarre, with a population of 661,537 inhabitants, 11.1% immigrants, compared to 5.38 in 2002, when the population was only slightly lower: 569,628.
According to García Macua, change is also unstoppable, because “there will be more and more kids, children of immigrants, who meet the requirements of having been born or educated in the Basque Country, so if they have the necessary qualities, they will play for Athletic without a doubt,” he says. “Nobody is scared by that anymore, although it is surprising, as it was in its day that the French national team had a majority of black footballers,” and Aierdi points out: “Now it is not France, but England or Belgium, which a few years ago only fielded blond players.”
The former Athletic president recalls that times have changed so much that forty years ago, the only black person living in Bilbao was the former Atlético de Madrid player Miguel Jones, “who was not allowed to play for Athletic,” adds Xabier Aierdi. He was born in Equatorial Guinea, but moved to the capital of Biscay as a child with his family. Coach Ferdinand Daucik wanted to sign him from Indauchu, but the club rejected him. It was 1956. Now there are no such problems. “We were lucky that the Williams produced good players, and they have opened the doors for footballers, even if they were born in Senegal, to be able to play for Athletic. It had to happen and it did,” he points out. “The day-to-day life of the club will be like this from now on and that generates attitudes of tolerance.” Macua believes that this tolerance, at least among Athletic supporters, already exists. “There has been no debate, and there was in other times with Luis De la Fuente, who was from La Rioja, or José Mari, although the fans at San Mamés took everything naturally. He has had the ability to adapt to all circumstances.” For Aierdi, Athletic’s change of skin will happen no matter what, “because no matter how much you try to avoid it, reality puts you in your place.”
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