We’ll never forget you took us to the Champions League.

Ander Iturraspe and Mikel Rico leave a vacuum at the Athletic Club. Each in their own way, they have made a beautiful career as lions. They arrived by different paths and ended up together forming a fantastic duo in the middle of the field that took for the second time in its history the music of the Champions to San Mamés, the first of the new stadium.

That endless figure of Iturraspe, who raised his neck with elegance to design the pass, caught the attention of Marcelo Bielsa. It was an unforgettable match in Manchester, an exhibition within reach of few people. It made Javi Martínez delay to the central position, since the Argentinian caught his reading of the game. Ernesto Valverde gave continuity to his status in the first season, in which Athletic held the pass to the Champions League in Vallecas.

Mikel Rico arrived as a surprise guest at the banquet from Granada. Like an ant, thanks to an enormous work and a stratospheric physical display, the one from Arrigorriaga gave away a fantastic first year, with five superb goals of all colours. He played no less than 34 league matches at a very high level.