The Eibar Family
In this commercialised market we once called ‘The Beautiful Game’, the underdog tale has become something of a myth. Today, finance generally dictates success, diluting the domestic leagues of France, Germany and, to a lesser extent, Italy into an established hierarchy of the best and the rest. Even as the Premier League departs the ‘Big Four’ era for a new dawn of financially-driven egalitarianism, Leicester City are ploughing an increasing lone furrow in the name of preserving the game’s dwindling romance.
If the trend has spread, infecting nations across the continent, then Spain is patient zero. While the bourgeoisie greedily guzzle image rights and television revenue, those peasants from third down melee for any dropped coins. The cities of Madrid and Barcelona have seized 15 of the last 20 La Liga titles, each ‘earning’ more from telly trades in 2013/14 than Valencia, Atletico, Sevilla and Sociedad combined. If football is the only truly global language, then the underdog tale doesn’t translate well into Spanish.
This, however, only serves to make the remarkable rise of SD Eibar even more significant. From Racing’s reserves in the third tier to the sixth and final European spot in La Liga in little over two years, theirs is a yarn so fantastical, so cliché that even the most sycophantic Hollywood mogul may reject it on the grounds of believability. All with one of the smallest budgets in the top three divisions. Football the fairytale may be a link too frequently cited, yet Eibar continue to revise the Cinderella story for a chanting, beer-swilling audience. Well, if the shoe fits…
Money talks
“It’s impossible to truly comprehend what Eibar have accomplished these past three years. Their natural home is the third division. Avoiding relegation from the second division was in itself a miracle as they had the smallest budget in all of the Segunda, let alone La Liga!”
After catching drift of this most fulfilling of feats, Henry Boguslavsky founded the EibarUSA Peña, one of only two armeros supporters clubs outside Spain. After all, nothing captures the public imagination quite like a burning sense of all-out injustice.
Of course, the underdogs cannot simply stroll to success. First, they must undertake a journey of willpower and resolve, overcoming conflict in the face of adversity. And, boy, do Eibar know about adversity.
“I’ve been a fan of Eibar since I heard of their #defiendealeibar campaign in early June 2014”.
Imagine thinking promotion via a superior points record over an entire season was enough to justify entry into the top flight. It’s not how things work in this joint. While Barcelona and Real Madrid cast off cheques ink Cartier ink, seemingly unaffected by their cumulative billion euro debt, tiny, debt-free were forced to raise 1.7million euros almost overnight or face demotion. Whoever said romance was dead.
However, Eibar, as they do, thrived in the face of such injustice. This plucky, poignant club from a tiny industrial province in the rolling Basque hills raised a defiant single digit to the establishment. Through their #defiendealeibar crowd-sourcing campaign, sponsors flocked from China and Australia to England and Ireland, united against such prejudice. Writers and fans helped out. So too did former loanees Xabi Alonso and Asier Illarramendi.
The smallest club in La Liga’s history just became the best supported.
‘Mind-boggling’
It’s fitting, then, that Eibar gained such a fitting reprieve. Despite finishing 18th, the third and final relegation place, mid-table Elche’s financial negligence meant they were demoted in Eibar’s place. They say fortune favours the brave after all.
And, eight months on, bar a brief stint at the top in late August, Eibar are higher now than at any point in their 76 year history. Beat that Leicester.
Currently flanked by Celta and Sevilla, six points ahead of Malaga and seven from Valencia, wild hallucinations of European football are just starting to sharpen into view. Survival remains the public buzzword, but whispers of continental competition are becoming more audible. And, in typical Eibar tradition, the platform for on-pitch success was made possible by a practical, level-headed structure.
“For Eibar to now be flirting with European qualification is mind-boggling”, confirms Boguslavsky. “It’s a testament to the culture club president Alex Aranzábal has created with his ‘Eibar Model’ and the shrewd scouting and talent acquisition of Sporting Director Fran Garagarza. The front office at Eibar is a once in a lifetime group of people fulfilling their destiny and their fans dreams.”
Eibar understand and accept their rather minor role in the bigger picture. With a budget of around 18million euros a season, pocket change even to Getafe and Granada, an entire squad restructure has become an annual ritual.
‘The Eibar Model’
This summer, 17 players departed the Ipurua Stadium with 18 arriving in their place, most on one-year deals or short-term loans, destined to depart at the seasons end. Yet, while most depict ‘gelling’ as a long-term chore, the ‘Eibar model’ carries on like clockwork.
“Eibar sign hungry and hard-working players. It is a rule and the strategy is brilliant”, says fellow Eibar USA Peña member John Sager.
“Keko and Borja Baston have been outstanding and are destined for big things but there have been many more great additions. Madman Argentine midfielder Gonzalo Escalante has been a gem and Takeshi Inui is finding his La Liga form. And Asier Riesgo has been assured at goal, even if his last name means ‘risky’ in Spanish.”
Of the aforementioned quintet, three barely scratched Eibar’s restricted reserves. Chief creator Keko and the experienced Riesgo arrived on frees from the second division while Baston, scorer of 12 La Liga goals, is on loan from Atletico Madrid. Meanwhile, Inui and Escalante are relative bank busters in comparison, arriving for a combined 1.5million euros. The latter, at 700,000 euros, is Eibar’s record signing.
And that’s without mentioning 21-year old left-back David Junca, superb since his summer arrival from Girona, and strapping forward Sergi Enrich, justifying his free transfer with six league goals. And, perhaps the finest coup of all, the homecoming of Jota. A season and a half after scoring Eibar’s promotion winning goal, he returned on loan from Brentford just four days ago.
Eibar, unlike Real Mallorca, Racing Santander, Elche and others, live entirely within their means; a trend that travels from the Ipurua’s spasmodic turf to its economical, bus-shelter style dugout where Jose Luis Mendilibar relays his hard-working, high-pressing principles. Sacked from Levante after just two months in charge at the start of last season, the 54-year-old’s stock had never been lower. Now, after half a season at Eibar, responses to his appointment have altered from madness to masterstroke.
With draws against Sevilla, Villarreal and Valencia, plus a hard-fought 2-0 win against Athletic Club in August, Mendilibar’s men have picked up a happy knack of dragging their more illustrious opponents down to earth. Even the traumatic collapse of last season, where Eibar lost 15 of their final 18 games under Gaizka Garitano, appears improbable, if not impossible.
In his second spell at the club, Mendilibar has moulded Eibar into his own image; tough, relentless, dogged. Their defensive record, bettered only by Malaga outside the top four, provides a platform for Keko, Capa, Berjon and Baston to thrive. However, with four wins from four after the winter break, including a 4-0 and 5-1 hammerings of Real Betis and Granada, Eibar’s evolution continues. Arguably, no one plays better football outside the top four.
“Mendilibar has done great work”, confirms Sager. “33 points after 20 games halfway is excellent, Europa League pace. But safety is most important. As we learned last year, it is never guaranteed and always a struggle when you have almost no transfer budget, pay the league minimum, and are from a tiny town”.
Working just 9 kilometres away from his Zaldibar birthplace, Mendilibar is at home, both literally and metaphorically, in the Basque hills.
“Mendilibar moved Ander Capa, a player who has been with Eibar since the B-team, to right back where his attacking prowess has been enhanced. He should be capped for Spain. Also, playmaker Saul Berjon and Dani Garcia are two other key players from last season still playing well.”
Home is where the Heart is
With a maximum capacity of just over 6,000, the Ipurua stadium is one of most compact grounds in the top three tiers of Spain’s professional game, dwarfed even by those of L’Hospitalet and CP Cacereño. The pitch, often more a mid-70’s marsh than the expected pristine carpet, is enclosed within walls of high-rise flats and moss-covered mountains. Apart from the odd commercial sponsor, the Ipurua feels naturally archaic. And that’s just part of the charm.
“I attended my first game just last month against Valencia,” Boguslavsky recalls. “The atmosphere inside Ipurua was surreal. The backdrop of the Basque mountains looming over us gives this ground a unique picturesque setting. It’s very authentic and intimate, like I was attending a secret, behind closed doors training match. You could occasionally hear the players talking with one another.
“I’ve attended famous grounds all over the world but nowhere else have I experienced such an intimate atmosphere where it felt like the world’s stars are performing for just you and a few friends. I call it the Field of Dreams, after the famous Hollywood movie of the same ilk.”
The Ipurua may play host to the lowest average attendance in the top flight yet still fill 85% of their stadium on a weekly basis. A total only Sevilla can top. To put it in context, Barcelona boast only 75%, Espanyol 45, Getafe 36. In a cold, seemingly uncaring Spanish game, Eibar represent something of an autonomous footballing community. A nostalgic anomaly. A reminder that money is not always the be and and end all.
“As shareholders and EibarUSA Peña members, we were generously invited to watch the game from the Directors Box,” Boguslavsky remembers. “The hospitality was above anything we could’ve ever imagined. President Alex Aranzábal even took time to socialize with us at halftime and again post-match. We also had a pre-Christmas Basque feast with members of Eskozia La Brava- the leading SD Eibar Peña.
“They made us feel like family. The club and fans are very friendly and relaxed.”
Family. A fitting description. Because that is what Eibar are. A family. And, in almost every sense, a complete antithesis to the worldwide brands flanking them in the top flight. They are living, winning proof that success and ethics can run hand in hand. A club with soul, never sacrificing their proud identity for a quick buck.
Perhaps Sager says it best; “Eibar prove a different kind of football is possible.”
Fuente: https://tacticaworld.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/the-eibar-family/
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