Lezama’s Sports Project Presented

Athletic Club has presented in Lezama the strategic lines of the Sports Project that will be carried out from this season for all its lower categories.

With the presence of Rafa Alkorta, Andoni Ayarza and Andoni Bombín, the sports management of the Club has explained the main concepts of the work to be carried out. “We want to develop professionals, to see many of our Lezama players working for living around the world and to consolidate Lezama. The best players are those from lower categories“, said Alkorta. The Athletic sports director have wanted to put special emphasis on the detection of the capabilities of football players: “The important thing for us is the talent, and we will shape them. We already have enough people here to make it to the first team. There were great professionals in Lezama and we have another idea. We want to win everything every Sunday, forming the boys. If we win better, I love it. We have values, but we like to win like everybody else.”

Andoni Ayarza, the deputy sports director, will be responsible for the scouting and recruiting area: “We are looking for a football player with character, highly competitive, with a winner spirit and ambition, but you have to see all the variables that affect him as a person. There is the cabinet of Psychology, the one of attention to the infancy, of attention to the player and the family. Children who need academic and residential care. There are three houses up to cadet age, with an integral and familiar attention. Then there is Derio’s residence. We are not going to insist much here, there are projects like the building of the first team and the residence of youth squad that will be in Lezama and we will try to get in the legislature of this Board. We want a complete footballer in the lower categories of Athletic“. Ayarza also wanted to underline the importance of the 152 clubs agreed with which has today the Club and where 50 of the 57 players who have joined Lezama this summer. “We will contrast their players at any time to train with ours“, said Ayarza, who also referred to the use of technology to track young values: “All observations will be recorded through the tool Dathak and will be to the benefit of the Club, for people who come from behind”.

Andoni Bombín, in charge of the Training Methodology, spoke of “preserving the essence of our players” as one of the bases of the work in his area: “We are going to try to make the first step for the kids to adapt, Athletic is something beautiful and something to enjoy. We have to educate in our values so that they develop their potentials. It is more important to enhance the good values that the players have rather than minimise the deficiencies. We believe that the player who is already in the Youth Division of Honor already see the possibility of reaching the first team, but with competitiveness and results. Training and competitiveness must go hand in hand“, he said.

In the tactical chapter Bombín has revealed that the game approach is homogeneous throughout the structure: “We want organized teams and with high rhythms of play. The teams can vary their system of play, but they are going to have a defensive line of four as a projection for the first team“. Special emphasis will be placed on physical preparation and from the second year cadet there will be a specific person in charge. In addition, Carlos Gurpegi and Tiko will also do specific work with the players on and off the field. The analysis department will be headed by Alberto Iglesias “with an exhaustive control of our players to create an Athletic DNA“, as Bombin has said, “There will be analysts by stages and data to manage the information and to generate knowledge“.