Chapter IV: The wonderful 70s

In this new delivery on the renowned football players that have played in San Mamés with teams that do not belong to the Liga, we now take a journey through the 1970s, very prolific for Athletic Club due to their European participation. The tribute and summer matches also brought about numerous visits from ‘cracks’ to La Catedral.

The 1977 Copa and UEFA Runners-up titles and those of the 1980s re-positioned Athletic Club in a privileged position in European soccer. Before the final against Juventus, Koldo Aguirre’s pupils faced Gianni Rivera’s Milan in the Round of 16, the first Italian to win the Golden Ball Award (1969) and for many one of the best five players from this transalpine country. This elegant midfielder, today a politician, hung his boots in 1979 after almost two decades with the ‘Rossoneri’ (red & black). San Mamés also saw and… suffered Fabio Capel because, although the lions put up a good fight against Giuseppe Meazza (4-1), the player shocked after scoring the first goal against Zaldua. Iribar did not play due to an injury and ‘El Txopo’ was also doubtful until the last minute as he was running a high fever.

The ‘Rossoneri’ goalkeeper was none other than Enrico Albertosi, goalie of the ‘Squadra Azzurra’ in the 1966 and 1970 World Cups and a substitute in those of 1962 and 1974, who stained his sporting career after being sanctioned for two years due to his involvement in the ‘Totonero’ scandal of illegal match-fixing. The next stumbling block for the lions was Barcelona of Cruyff and Neeskens and in the semi-finals, they ran into Racing White, in whose row was a Danish midfielder with a whole lot of talent, Morten Olsen, currently that country’s National team coach. He brought out his best in his thirties playing for Anderlecht and was the first Danish player to reach the one hundred international matches mark.

In the second leg of the UEFA final, La Catedral welcomed a selection of players that, five years later, would be the backbone of the ‘Squadra Azzurra’ that won the 1982 World Cup. That historical Juventus, that won the title with a squad free of foreign players (something unheard of in Italy at an international level), appeared with the mythical Dino Zoff, one of best goalkeepers in history, the lateral Claudius Gentile, famous for his implacable scores, especially the one Maradona was subject to in the aforementioned World Cup, the fabulous right winger Franco Causio, the defender Gaetano Scirea, faithful to the ‘Stilo Juve’ and praised for his sporting chivalry, who died in a traffic accident in 1989, and the tireless Marco Tardelli, author of the goal scored in Turin against Iribar thanks to a lucky shot with his hump, as well as that of the second Italian goal in that World Cup final and whose touching celebration will always remain with us.

The list of stars was completed with the veteran Robert B Oninsegna (Runner-up of the World Cup in 1970) and Roberto Bettega, who spoiled our celebration with his early goal in San Mamés and who suffered a later injury that kept him from conquering a World Cup. All of them were under the management of the renowned and honoured Giovanni Trappatoni, who premiered in continental victory from the bench.

The 1970s were simply exceptional as far as the cache of teams and footballers that visited San Mamés. The best European players accepted the invitation of our organization to dispute friendly matches. In August 1973, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Athletic Club, Bayern Munich debuted in La Catedral (1-2).

The Bavarians, who began that summer with what was going to be a magical triennium (three European Cups, 1974 to 76), brought all their arsenal to Bilbao, beginning with one of the best-known ‘cracks’, the ‘Kaiser’, Franz Beckenbauer, who strolled his magnificence on the Bilbaoan turf along with Gerd ‘Torpedo’ Müller, the quintessential German goal scorer, the skilful left-wing forward Uli Hoeness, current president of Bayern Munich, Paul Breitner, ‘the Cat’ Sepp Maier, due to his feline reflexes under the woods, and Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, a cursed name for Atlético de Madrid because a shot from a distance in the last stretch he scored the equalizer in the 1974 final, moving the ‘colchonero’ club away from what could have been their first European Cup.

The six lived the glory with the invincible Teuton selection in the 1972 Euro and the 1974 World Cup.
A year before, Athletic had already faced the Bavarians in the Carranza Trophy of Cadiz (Bayern was eliminated in the penalty shootout and Benfica was defeated in the final) and in 1974, the Teuton team returned to San Mamés to take part in the I Athletic Club International Trophy. However, another ‘colossal’ at the time, Feyenoord, who had just been proclaimed UEFA champion, kept the team from reaching the final.

Those of Rotterdam, that were victorious against the lions in the penalty shootout, were led by Willem Van Hanegem, who amazed with his handling of the ball and his tactical insight in the ‘Clockwork Orange’, runners-up in the World Cup, or in other words, was ‘the other intelligent’ (along with Cruyff) of the ‘tulip’ core. Other members of the Holland ‘total football’ team were midfielder Wim Jansen and Theo de Jong, who also played in that match under the San Mamés Arc and who (both) repeated victories two years later in the second edition along with Wim Rijsbergen, famous for his blonde hair, a hard-core defender of the orange national team.

Feyenoord disposed of Standard Lieje, who presented a young and promising Eric Gerets, one of the best right wingers of all times. In 1975, in the tribute match for Javier Clemente, Athletic Club drew one all with the reigning UEFA champion, Borussia Mönchengladbach, whose captain was Berti Vogts, a ‘hunting dog’ that eclipsed Cruyff in the ’74 World Cup. Others like Stielike and the Danish Simonsen (Golden Ball in 1977) and Jensen, later left their mark in the Spanish Liga.