AMAZING story of how Arteta, Alonso and Iraola played for same boys’ team

Football writer Graham Hunter explores the origins of Antiguoko Kirol Elkartea, the amateur football club where Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola all played during the 1990s.

Now that Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are all managed by three relatively young men who grew up within a firm goal-kick of one another, and are alumni of one particular amateur football club in the Basque region of northern Spain, there will be a tendency to dub Antiguoko Kirol Elkartea as some kind of soccer Hogwarts.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact that Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola — who all played for Antiguoko in San Sebastian, in the years shown in our main image — have all gone on to achieve terrific playing success and are now in direct competition to win the top honours with three of England’s most storied clubs is, in fairness, extraordinary.

But if you ask anyone at Antiguoko, which was founded as recently as 1982, whether they have a magic formula, or possess some secret football knowledge which would be the equivalent of the infamous secret recipe for Coca-Cola, they’d laugh at you. 

Antiguoko believe that they recruit well at a junior age, that they provide hugely significant teaching of life values, as well as superb soccer coaching — but they always point out that these three, and the various other LaLiga stars that the club has produced always possessed fundamentally excellent character, ability and ambition.

The absolute key thing about the club — if you want to marvel at their ability to produce the man who brought AFC Bournemouth their first ever European qualification (Iraola not only played for Antiguoko, he also began his coaching career there), the man who won Bayer Leverkusen their only Bundesliga title (Alonso) and the manager who guided Arsenal to their first Premier League Trophy for 22 years (Arteta) — is where they are situated, when they were formed and how they treat their alumni.

Alonso, Iraola and Arteta were all born within seven months of one another — at precisely the time that Antiguoko was being devised, constructed and launched.

When they, and others of that generation, emerged as budding schoolboy players, the facilities, the pitches, the coaches, the scouts, the organisers (all amateur, unpaid and in it for the love of the game) and the foreign trips to compete against Europe’s best were right on the doorstep for these guys. Other sports, other temptations could be set aside — Antiguoko was waiting, primed with the specific ambition to teach and develop kids such as these.

It’s all because, just under a month before World Cup ’82 began in Spain, an historic meeting took place in the Antiguo neighbourhood Bar Juanito. 

A handful of foresighted guys thought that their existing “barrio” football club would never amount to much at senior competitive level and, thus, decided to invest all their time and energy into “futbol formativo” (youth development).

No foundations shook in England’s top division that night, but, looking back, perhaps they should have.

For 13 years, the club meetings were held in bars like El Antzara and Cafe Golden. “When we won our first trophies, playing on the beach, we toured them around those local bars because we had no home and no trophy cabinet!” explained Dodaka Salegi, a former president of Antiguoko.

Iraola (first left) and Arteta (middle) in the front row of an Antiguoko team photo

Back then, San Sebastian had been under-provided in terms of playing and training space. Already a wealthy community, lauded as Spain’s most beautiful city, many spare spaces were gobbled up for housing, hotels, and commercial properties.

That was one of the reasons that, when the tide was out, parents, kids and coaches literally drew out a series of pitches on the flat, hard sand on La Concha beach, dragged out goal-frames and played dozens of matches until the Cantabrian sea swept in again.

Indeed this dynamic, loveable club played their matches on that beach and another one, at Ondarreta, for many years.

In due course, Antiguoko, backed by the local council, constructed and then started playing and training on the Municipal Berio pitches. These pitches are now used by 60,000 players but initially they were nothing more than gravel playing surfaces, meaning that when technical maestros like Messrs Alonso, Iraola and Arteta started honing their skills and competing at a meaningful level, their beginnings were either on hard sand or dusty gravel, not grass.

Alonso (first left) and Arteta (first right) in the front row of another Antiguoko line-up

A fellow Antiguoko alumnus, Aritz Aduriz, twice the top scorer in the UEFA Europa League with Athletic Club, explains: “Antiguoko is an academy that does an excellent job developing youth talent, employing a distinctive style: one which is centred on ball control and playing it on the ground.

“It consists solely of youth categories — and in that environment, free from the intense pressure of senior-level competition, it is naturally easier to concentrate on core values.”

In due course, while Alonso starred as a Liverpool player, the Anfield club sent a delegation over to San Sebastian to study what, if anything, they could distinguish that Antiguoko were doing which merited copying.

Now, with Iraola in charge of the Reds, perhaps it’s best if I let this remarkable little club with a gigantic heart speak for itself.

Reflecting on their remarkable Premier League impact they say:

“The season that Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta delivered in the Premier League speaks not only of two elite managers; it shines a spotlight on one of European football’s premier youth academies: Antiguoko Kirol Elkartea.

“We are a neighbourhood institution – modest in resources yet colossal in influence. We have served for decades as a true school for both footballing and human development.

“These guys who now work in the Premier League have publicly acknowledged the profound impact Antiguoko K.E. had on their athletic and personal development. We nurture players, by fostering raw talent, but also via a culture of hard work, tactical intelligence game interpretation, and collective commitment. A footballing philosophy grounded in competitiveness and holistic development.

“Our club embodies the very essence of local grassroots football. Here, football is in the air from a very young age — but so, too, are discipline, a sense of closeness, and a deep feeling of belonging. Mikel, Andoni and Xabi have explained in various interviews how the club shaped their approach to competition and their understanding of the sport.

“True greatness does not always depend on budget, but rather on philosophy, a specific model, daily hard work, and the capacity to nurture individuals as well as footballers.”