Endika appeared in the Bilbao estuary. Liceranzu was visible. And it was not 1984. The past heroes of Athletic Club, champions of the League and the Cup 40 years ago, crossed the waters this Thursday aboard a boat that followed the long-awaited barge, where their worthy successors were traveling: the new champions of the cup.
The past and present of the centenary Basque entity came together this Thursday in a historic celebration for the cup title that brought together hundreds of thousands of people, the largest concentration ever seen in Euskadi. Several generations of team fans, coming from all corners, intermingled to dye the champions’ route red and white. From children to elderly people, until now the only ones who remembered the previous day of glory in the fruitful eighties.
A popular song is to blame for the image that was seen this Thursday between Las Arenas, the beginning of the route, and the Provincial Council of Vizcaya, passing through Getxo, Portugalete, Leioa, Sestao, Erandio and Barakaldo. “A barge went down the Nervión river, rumbala, rumbala, rum,” said part of the stanza of a song about the Acero Club of Olabeaga, which after winning the Spanish B championship in 1924 took the barge down the estuary for the first time. The tune remained engraved in the head of Cecilio Gerrikagoitia, director of Athletic in the eighties and promoter of this peculiar form of celebration for those of San Mamés.
Athletic parked the Land Rovers and trucks, vehicles they previously used to celebrate the titles, and boarded the iconic barge, built in 1960 and renamed Athletic. The ship stopped transporting metals, concrete blocks and coal to carry first the 1983 League champions and then the double winners a year later.
After four decades, the old ship, parked for years in the Bilbao Maritime Museum and rehabilitated in 2021 with an investment of 200,000 euros, was decorated to give Ernesto Valverde’s pupils their well-deserved chapter in the club’s history. Captain Iker Muniain was once again the master of ceremonies of a squad that was accompanied by the legendary former goalkeeper Chopo Iribar. The 18.5 meter long barge was the center of a naval procession that dragged hundreds of boats of all types, including that of Iñigo Martínez, a Barça player and former Athletic player.
Among others, De Marcos, Yuri and a shirtless Nico Williams, because of the sun that accompanied the day, chanted and offered the Cup to the fans who filled all the banks of the estuary, the balconies and the roofs of many buildings. Altos Hornos, the Hanging Bridge, the San Mamés stadium and the Guggenheim museum were witnesses of the athletic apotheosis. “We are crazy, I have to pinch myself seeing all this,” said Iñaki Williams while sailing.
With the barge moored to the dock, the party even raised the decibels even higher when the lions walked to the steps of the Town Hall, where an aurresku linked the festivities with Basque tradition. After being received by the mayor, Juan María Aburto, the players were able to address the fans. “You have no idea how heavy the responsibility was. We deserve this celebration. You don’t have to win to boast this unique philosophy. And the titles tell us that we are on the right path,” said Muniain inside the town hall, acclaimed with the shout of president, before going out to the balcony with the rest of the staff to receive another mass bath from the thousands of fans gathered in that spot.
“We are the most fascinating club in the world, that’s for sure,” explained Valverde, while Iñigo Lekue dedicated the title “to very important people” who “have instilled in him a feeling for Athletic,” some deceased like his father. “I haven’t woken up from the dream yet. “Aúpa Athletic!” shouted the MVP of the final, Nico Williams, in the round of speeches and chants from all the players. Then came the stop at the Provincial Council, where, again with more speeches from the footballers, the epilogue was set to a day, April 11, 2024, that Athletic and its parish had been waiting for for 40 years.
