Athletic Bilbao W

Bilbao FC, Athletic Club, and Club Bizcaya

Football was introduced to Bilbao by two distinct groups with British connections: British workers and Basque students returning from schools in Britain. In the late 19th century, Bilbao was a leading industrial town, thus becoming the home to a large British colony, mainly made up of migrant workers, including shipyard workers and miners from various areas of England, such as Southampton, Portsmouth, and Sunderland. Along with coal, they brought with them (as in so many other parts of the world) the game of football. Meanwhile, sons of the Basque educated classes, such as Juan Astorquia, went to Britain to complete their studies, and while there they developed a deep interest in football. When they returned, they began to organize games with British workers at the Hippodrome of Lamiako, which at the time was the home of organized football in Biscay.

In 1898, Juan Astorquia and six other Basque students belonging to the Gymnasium Zamacois began to practice football in Lamiako. Three years later, in 1901, at a meeting held at the Café García, this group of football pioneers, now larger, began conversations to become a legalized official football club, which they called Athletic Club, using the English spelling. Luis Márquez became the club's first president, while Astorquia and Alfred Mills (the club's only foreign-born founder) were named the team's captain and vice-captain, but in 1902, Astorquia replaced Márquez as president, ruling from 1902 until 1903. Under his presidency, Athletic and their city rivals Bilbao Football Club reached an agreement to combine the best players of both sides to form a team known as Club Bizcaya, which was created to compete in the 1902 Copa de la Coronación (forerunner of the Copa del Rey which officially began a year later) held in Madrid; Bizcaya returned to Bilbao with the trophy after beating Joan Gamper's FC Barcelona 2–1 in the final. On 24 March 1903, Bilbao FC and its associates were officially and definitively absorbed by Athletic Club. The club itself declares 1898 as its foundation date.

Pichichi and Copa del Rey

The club featured prominently in early Copas del Rey. Following their triumph at the Copa de la Coronación by Club Bizcaya, Athletic won their first Copa del Rey in 1903. After watching the final in the Spanish capital that year, Basque students also formed an affiliated team, Athletic Club Madrid, which later evolved into Atlético Madrid. In 1904, holders Athletic were declared winners of the trophy after their opponents failed to turn up. In 1907, they revived the name Club Vizcaya after entering a combined team with La Union and were beaten in the Copa final. After a brief lull, they won again in 1910, with Luis Astorquia as the new captain and goalkeeper.

In 1911, former team captain Alejandro de la Sota, was elected as the 7th president of the club, and he was the driving force behind the construction of the San Mamés Stadium (architect Manuel María Smith), which opened in 1913 and soon became one of the symbols of Athletic's dominance in the 1910s, winning the Copa del Rey three times in a row between 1914 and 1916, with Billy Barnes as coach. Between 1917 and 1919, the club went through a period of institutional crisis and during that time did not participate in the Copa del Rey, having failed to win the regional tournament that acted as the qualifier. In 1920, with the return of Billy Barnes, Athletic once again participated in the national championship and in 1921 won the Copa del Rey again.

The star of this team was Pichichi, a prolific goalscorer who scored the first goal at the San Mamés on 21 August 1913 and a hat-trick in the 1915 final. The last championship won by Pichichi was the 1921 Copa del Rey, before his death aged just 29 in 1922. Today, the La Liga top-scorer is declared the Pichichi in his honour.

Fred Pentland and the first historic attack

Along with fellow Basque clubs such as Real Unión, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Sociedad, Athletic was a founding member of La Liga in 1928 and by 1930 they were joined by CD Alavés; five of the ten clubs in the Primera División were from the Basque Country. The saying "Con cantera y afición, no hace falta importación" (en: "With home-grown teams and support, there is no need for import"), made sense during these early days.