Iribar and Zubizarreta: Passing on a Legacy
Iribar and Zubizarreta: Passing on a Legacy
The former Athletic no.1s talk about the role goalkeepers have played throughout the club's history
As part of the celebrations planned for José Ángel Iribar's 80th birthday, Athletic Club brought together Iribar and Andoni Zubizarreta, one of his most celebrated successors, for a chat at San Mamés.
Zubizarreta has always spoken of his enormous admiration for his hero, Iribar. In fact he even wanted to emulate his idol by wearing Iribar's famous black strip. But El Txopo himself convinced a young Andoni to opt for a different look, with Zubizarreta making the green jersey his own.
During the conversation between the two legends, Zubizarreta pointed out that Iribar "always says that Athletic's history can be traced through our goalkeepers".
A statement based on a long line of shotstoppers to which both Iribar and Zubizarreta belong, along with several other great names, such as Gregorio Blasco, Raimundo Lezama and Carmelo Cedrún, and which carries on to the present day with Unai Simón, Julen Agirrezabala, Mariasun Quiñones and Amaia Peña.
A permanent legacy that is passed on from generation to generation, from goalkeeper to goalkeeper, and that shapes Athletic Club's collective imagination.
On March 1, José Ángel Iribar will turn 80 years old and, for this reason, Athletic Club has invited all its affiliated clubs, and goalkeepers all over the world, to wear black jerseys in tribute to Iribar during their fixtures on the first weekend of March.
All of this to pay tribute to a figure Zubizarreta describes as "a role model in football and in life".