With glassy eyes and the fronton Bizkaia standing. This was Mikel Urrutikoetxea’s goodbye of the professional ball. Wrapped by his followers … and on the stage in which he got all his official titles. Three, one in each modality. In just one year the striker went from being the eternal promise to champion. His explosion was an oxygen outbreak for the territory within this sport. He broke a drought of titles that lasted 38 years and did so bluntly. This Saturday he lost with Zabaleta against Altuna III and Albisu. The result was the least. Zaratamo’s is part of the history of the ball.
It was a Pelotari capable of discussing the domain that Aimar Olaizola and Juan Martínez de Irujo, protagonists of one of the golden times. He won both. First to his idol from childhood. The Goizueta striker, whom Sparring was from the age of 16 and has not hesitated to qualify him as “the most complete pelotari,” a manomanist snatched in 2015. When very few expected him, Urrutikoetxea arrived in silence to mark his territory and fulfill a dream in a very hard duel. Some fans still remember the emotion of Jesús García Ariño and Iñaki Gorostiza, the previous Biscayan champions, before the ceremony of the delivery of the txapela.
Six months later he could with the Ibero champion inside the bounded after a comeback for the memory in which, after losing 10-20, he made twelve consecutive and took madness to the stands of the Miribilla pediment. And if this were not enough, the inertia he carried allowed him to put the brooch a little later with the couples. But he did it as a defender in the company of Olaizola II, being a striker, something that so far has not repeated anyone again and they will need for years to see each other again. In this way, the Biscayan entered the select group of eight pelotaris that have the triple crown.
Golden age
From 2015 to 2020 it was his golden age in a race that has prolonged 16 years. He won the first three finals and played another four. He was very close to expanding his record on a couple of occasions but could not. That spiky pelotari with a special spark on the right reached the summit after a slow cooking process based on work. There were no secrets. He managed to exploit his virtues and learned that to present battle to the best he had to be nonconformist. And despite his shyness it was. On the court. Where I was more comfortable.
He paid the price of injuries. As a young man, hands problems. When he was already tanned, a mononucleosis forced him to stop at his peak. But that also came out. Quite more complicated was the long illness and subsequent death of his mother. He entered a dark tunnel in full pandemic, which coincided with the strike of the Pelotaris of his company that did not second, something that earned him some criticisms.
He had to overcome the fears generated by depression, asked for help, fought, and also won that game. But the years do not forgive, except when there are rivals with the same hunger and qualities as those of Zaratamo ten years ago. The individual tournaments, which grant and remove status, went to the background because their brightness began to decline. And at the end of last year he made the most complicated decision.
Other pelotaris like Danel Elezkano, already removed by physical problems, and Aitor Elordi took over in the Biscay ball and took her to the top. They followed the path that Mikel Urrutikoetxea drew after a long journey through the desert.
