undefined

Same colors, same passion

Same colors, same passion

Gilena is a Sevillian village in the southwest of a province that has not lost sight of the sustenance offered by the immense fields of olive trees.

Athletic Club has felt the warmth and closeness of a municipality that has been overturned to thank the Club for a gesture of 74 years ago. With the red-and-white president Aitor Elizegi at the head, a retinue of the club has been in the Sevillian town that wanted to pay tribute to Athletic Club, with passion and with the same colors.

Together with the mayor of Gilena, Emilio Gomez, Elizegi has signed in the book of honor of the municipality and then the whole retinue has visited the Pepe Luna field, a name acquired from the person who fought 74 years ago for the survival of Gilena CF, today presided over by Tete Diaz. Today, his daughter and grandchildren were there, and they are still grateful, along with an entire town, for the gesture that came from 1,000 kilometers away. This is the story.

Gilena is a Sevillian village in the southwest of a province that has not lost sight of the sustenance offered by the immense fields of olive trees, but that lives more from the stone, from the industry that works the arids, that extracts above all calcium carbonate and ornamental marble. A village that has witnessed the pass of Iberians, Romans, Visigoths and Arabs searching for the particular treasure of these places. Centuries later, its natural quarries still provide great economic and labour support to the Southern Sierra region. The liquid gold and the work of the stone has kept active this locality that also has in the nearby steppe some neighbors known worldwide for their Christmas sweets. The sport in these areas is another story. For example, Gilena’s links with football began back in 1925, although it is not until after the Civil War that its neighbours created a team representing the whole town.

The Gilena CF borns from a group of enthusiastic fans that has many difficulties to progress with the entity. These are post-war times of hardship and scarcity and although the children of the village show desire and manners, they have no the technical support and material needed to move forward. In this situation of total crisis, the Gilena decides to send an S.O.S. to the main clubs of the province of Seville first and then to the rest of the Andalusian teams and finally to the rest of the State.

But the help did not arrive. Neither from Seville, nor from the neighbouring Malaga, nor from Cadiz, nor from anyone else. A few days later, a wooden box appeared in the address of the club’s headquarters. Inside, a wide assortment of jerseys, trousers, socks and boots of all sizes. As it rained from the sky all the necessary material and more had appeared. But where did that wide assortment of dark panties and red and white striped jerseys come from? The return address of the drawer left no room for doubt: Bilbao. The answer to Gilena’s call for help did not come from 100 kilometres around, but from 1,000. Athletic Club was the only one that dared to solve the problem and became the protagonist of a history barely known today.

Gilena has not forgotten that gesture ever since. As a thank you, they decided to change their colours and wear always red-and-white on their coat of arms and on their main outfit. The eldest of the place still defend the team from Bilbao with all their heart when the youngest confuse those origins with others who sense much closer. The Gilena CF of today competes in the Regional Sevillana and the town of Gilena want to refresh now that bond. The walls of the Municipal Stadium Pepe Luna will give account from now on of that decision of Athletic Club that changed the life of a small Andalusian town.