A piece of history in San Mamés. On September 16, a few minutes before the kick-off of a Champions League match between Arsenal and Athletic Bilbao, Gunners captain Gabriel Magalhães joined Spanish striker Iñaki Williams to lay a wreath of flowers at the foot of the bust of Rafael Moreno Aranzadi.
More commonly nicknamed Pichichi, the Spanish striker is a true legend of Athletic Bilbao, his training club. Died by typhus disease at just 29 years old in 1922, the center forward was the first Basque to write the club’s history, scoring 89 goals in 78 games for four Copa del Rey wins (1914, 1915, 1916 and 1921). He is notably the first scorer in the history of the San Mamés stadium.
Enough to push Athletic Bilbao to pay him eternal homage by installing a statue of him after his death. Since then, a tradition has continued: each time a team comes to play for the first time at the San Mamés stadium, the captain is asked to place a bouquet of flowers in front of its bust.
“This is a courtesy gesture that the visiting teams are carrying out to honor the memory of an idol who embodies the values of the Athletic Club: dedication and passion,” we can read on the San Mamés stadium website.
Mathieu Bodmer’s tribute
A tradition that Paris Saint-Germain will not follow this Wednesday evening (9 p.m.), since they already respected it around fifteen years ago. The capital club had already traveled to the Basque Country, one evening in September 2011, for a Europa League group stage meeting.
Antoine Kombouaré’s players lost 2-0, but Mathieu Bodmer, then with the armband, paid tribute to Pichichi by leaving a bouquet of flowers before kick-off. Marquinhos will therefore not have to imitate him this Wednesday. In 2016, Olympique de Marseille and its captain Steve Mandanda also paid tribute to the striker before a round of 16 second leg of the Europa League against Bilbao.
La Liga also pays a nod each year to the star of Spanish football, by awarding, since its creation in 1928, the “Pichichi trophy”, rewarding the top scorer in the Spanish championship. A distinction obtained by Kylian Mbappé last season: the former Parisian scored 31 goals for his first year with Real Madrid.
