Villarreal beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at San Mames on Sunday, with Sergio Cardona opening the scoring in a match that had a 9pm kick-off. The result lifted Villarreal to third place in La Liga, while Athletic Bilbao dropped to 11th after the defeat.
The match came in a stadium steeped in history. San Mames, known as the cathedral of Bilbao football, sits in a slight curve near the river Nervion, not far from the Guggenheim Museum. The current stadium was built in 2016, replacing an earlier ground constructed near a church named after Mammes, a man thrown to the lions by the Romans.
The view from the Artxanda funicular above the city takes in the Guggenheim, the river Nervion, and old cranes left over from Bilbao's industrial past. It was in that area, late in the nineteenth century, that British dockers and sailors played football, leading to the formation of Athletic Club de Bilbao in 1898. The club's players still travel the Nervion on a barge, known as the gabarra, to celebrate major victories. It was last launched in 2024 after Athletic won the Copa del Rey.
Fred Pentland and Athletic's history
Supporters near the ground still talk about Fred Pentland, a former prisoner of war in the First World War who arrived in Bilbao in 1922 and changed the way football was played in Spain. He followed the passing style of the Scotch Professors and let his players jump over his bowler hat after every win. His Athletic side became the first in Spain to win consecutive doubles.
"We still remember Mr Pentland," said Ignacio, a fan drinking beer at a bar near the ground. "The stories here are passed down through family. We know history and much of it revolves around the football club. It is a big part of Basque identity."
Many supporters at the match wore replica shirts, including versions from 1898. La Liga director Jaime Blanco said clubs wearing historic kits that weekend was an opportunity to tap into their history and traditions during Spain's fashion week.
Athletic and Villarreal: contrasting histories
Miguel Lourenco Pereira, author of the book Pasion, published by Pitch Publishing, said there could be no bigger contrast between two clubs than Athletic and Villarreal. He said Athletic represented the most traditional of all Spanish clubs, while Villarreal represented an important shift in Spanish football over the past 25 years.
Pereira said Athletic was all about heritage, still representing Basque identity to its core, and was less concerned with winning than with simply existing, calling it a fascinating way to live the game in 2026 given that Athletic has never won a European trophy.
Villarreal, by contrast, was a lower-league side with no notable background before Fernando Roig, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Spain, bought the club. Pereira said Roig brought an entrepreneurial culture that helped the club outgrow its town, whose stadium now holds more people than actually live there. Villarreal won the Europa League in 2021, beating Manchester United on penalties in the final, while focusing on youth development rather than overspending.
Scottish links to Spanish football
Both Athletic and Villarreal have Celtic supporters clubs. Villarreal's was formed in 2004 after a meeting between the two clubs in European competition, and the bond has continued through shared charity work. Athletic's own Celtic supporters group, the Bilbao Bhoys, gathers in the city's Old Town on match days.
Pereira said Sevilla FC was formed on Burns' Night by members of the Scottish community in Seville, who wanted to play against Recreativo Huelva, a club with a British intake linked to a mining company operating on the Rio Tinto river. He said Real Betis, Sevilla's city rivals, took their green and white kit from Glasgow after one of the club's founders went to school there and became friends with a figure connected to Celtic's formation.
Athletic's Basque-only recruitment policy
Athletic Bilbao only fields players who are Basque by birth or upbringing, or who are trained at Basque academies. The club's rules also allow children of the Basque diaspora to play. Rival clubs in the Basque country, notably Real Sociedad and Osasuna, have complained that Athletic takes the best players from their academies.
Javier Clemente, a former Athletic coach, has criticised the club's recent recruitment of players not from its own academy, saying some arrive through what he called a "trapdoor," a reference to signing players and briefly placing them in the academy before claiming they are home-grown.
Inaki and Nico Williams, both current Athletic players, qualify under the policy because they were born in Spain. Their parents fled Ghana in 1993, crossing the Sahara desert before reaching Spain, where they were granted asylum. Inaki was born in Bilbao and Nico in Pamplona.
Fans' view of the club
During the match, Aymeric Laporte battled with Villarreal's Tani Oluwaseyi as the visitors pushed for the win that moved them to third in the table. Supporters around San Mames said success was not the point of following Athletic. "We know it can be a struggle, we know that La Liga title may always be out of reach," said one fan.
