“Personally, I want people from home for Athletic”

He stepped down as the Athletic’s athletic director last summer. Now watch the shots from the side. Rafa Alkorta speaks.

How does Lezama see from the outside?

We need to see Lezama well, we need to be optimistic about whoever will lead Lezama because we need to understand that he is looking for the best to continue to nurture the first team of homegrown players. Each teacher with his booklet. Now Sergio Navarro and other people have come in and they are taking it in a different way than we used to, but the players keep leaving. The question is we keep feeding what we have for life. There are times when more players come out and sometimes less.

did they talk to you

Nope. The only thing we did, especially on behalf of Ayarza, was to give them a dossier containing all the information about what was done during our three and a half years in Lezama.

Are you surprised that they have chosen to bring in technicians from outside Bizkaia?

I’m not surprised. Soccer works like this. Yesterday I was with one person who was going to China and another to Ecuador. In the world of football there has to be a lot of turnover. You have to be open to other ideas, to people who come from other places with other ideas, but to me personally. I like people from home because you feel really different. Each one is there.

How does Bilbao Athletic’s situation live?

Last year we had to change coaches and we were saved thanks to the work of Patxi Salinas and a lot of suffering, but it is a matter of the players. We tried to tell them that they were good enough to continue in that category. With each passing year you have to face more difficulties, but they also have to understand that with each passing year they are better soccer players. That’s the fight. It’s a shame because I almost look up to Bilbao Athletic more than the first team.

Ziganda replaced Valverde in the first team and Garitano replaced Berizzo, but Etxebe arrived when Garitano was dismissed.

I still believe that Joseba is a Primera coach and one day he will coach Athletic. You have some knowledge, feel for the club and I like the way they play. There are people on the board of directors who don’t believe the same, thinking he’s inexperienced, but I do. Joseba will return one day and as the coach of the first team.

It’s soccer.

This is football, but here other things should be more than football when there are people from home like him, who gradually lost popularity within the club, something that none of us liked know him because he is someone who can have a lot of influence on children to become professionals.