Monument to Athletic Club players
Monument to Athletic Club players
As part of the Club's 125th anniversary, and in collaboration with the City Council and the Provincial Council, on Saturday August 12 a work of art will be unveiled that recreates the goal lines of the old San Mamés in the exact place where they were located
On Saturday, 12 August, at 19:00 CEST, Athletic Club, together with the Bilbao City Council and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, will unveil a monument commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Club. The art work will place the two goal lines of the old San Mamés in the exact spot where they used to be.
There will also be two plaques with the following text written in Basque, Spanish, English and French:
Athletic Clubeko elastikoa defendatu duten jokalari guztien omenez
En honor a quienes han defendido la camiseta del Athletic Club
In honour of those players who have fought for the Athletic Club badge
En hommage aux footballeurs qui ont porté le maillot de l'Athletic Club
This monument is intended to represent an invisible presence. It's not an installation that imposes itself on the landscape, but rather suggests an interpretation, as if the lines of the goals were, in truth, lines of memory.
Wherever the white lines are drawn, the memory of what happened in the old San Mamés from 1913 to 2013 will live on. Days of glory, of happiness, of emotion, of uncertainty, of euphoria, of disappointment and of drama... a world of shared experiences between the team and fans that turned San Mamés into The Cathedral of football.
Athletic Club, through its Former Players' Association, will send a formal invitation to its ex-players in the coming days so they can take part in the monument's unveiling ceremony.
What's more, the ceremony will coincide with our LaLiga 2023/24 opener against Real Madrid, a match that has taken place in every single year of LaLiga dating back to its inuagural season in 1928/29 -a classic among classics, representing a contrast between two sides with different way of understanding football.
This monument recreating the goal lines of the old San Mames will join the already planned statue of Jose Angel Iribar, whose specific presentation date in 2023 has not yet been determined.