Passionate about photography since his time as a player in Barcelona, ??where he enrolled in the IEFC, Ernesto Valverde has a photo he is missing. It’s a snapshot that several generations have been waiting for. A capture that resists 40 years, the ones that keep Athletic from lifting a Copa del Rey. Viandar de la Vera won it with Barcelona as a player (1990, against Madrid, despite the fact that he stayed on the Mestalla bench) and as a coach (2018).
The coach, who usually shoots with black and white reels, needs to color the history of Athletic, who does not want to continue seeing Endika’s goal with nostalgia, in sepia tones. It has rained too much. Valverde himself was 20 years old and started at Alabès in Segona B.
You could almost say that it has rained in Ibagaine and San Mamés, the old and the new. Above all because since then Athletic have chained together six finals in a row with defeat in the cup tournament, their fetish. Valverde has in his hand and on the board the click so that it does not stop being, to catch the infatuation again.
“We dreamed from the beginning of the season to be here, but in the end we are a team that in the 21st century has lost the five finals it has played. So, when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose”, explained the coach about a possible excess of pressure for his players.
Around 3,000 fans waved off the Athletic coach as it went from Lezama to the airport to fly to Seville, where, incidentally, Valverde lost a Cup final with Barça in 2019. Although he did not be at the La Cartuja stadium, but at Villamarín against Valencia.
More than 20 years after the debut on the white-and-red bench, the 389th game is perhaps the most relevant. “Obviously it’s important to me. I know what this game means to everyone if we can win. Right now it is the most important thing”, he confessed. In this third stage – his contract ends and he has not yet renewed it – Valverde has worked quietly, in his own way, and has carried out a great relief with Paredes, Beñat Prados and Guruzeta, all youngsters from the squad.
It was in Vitoria, in Alabès, where he met López Rekarte, another friend, with whom in the summer of 1996 they embarked on their last step as footballers. The winger and winger landed in an ambitious Segona… el Mallorca project. The forward did not play much – seven games as a starter – and only scored three goals, but he hung up his boots young (33 years old) with his promotion to the Sarró. From here, it can be considered the golden stage of his rival.
Thanks for that? Certainly not, but it turns out that it’s a team that is testing Valverde, since they haven’t lost against the islanders since 2006. “I wouldn’t mind saying we’re favorites if they gave me a goal. Since they won’t give it to me, I have no intention of motivating the opposite”, he said, trying to give an image of tranquility, like the good portraitist that he is.
