Mendilibar, the last of the line

The list of Basque coaches in the First Division represents a quarter of the total. One in four, in other words. Almost nothing.

For some time now, from a purely rojiblanco point of view, I wonder how many of them the current managers of Lezama will now choose to train in the lower Athletic categories. Uncertainty that can reach all coaches currently working in so-called elite football. Almost all of them have a characteristic: they were players, many in the First Division, before they became coaches.

One of the common denominators of all of them, apart from the characteristics and experience of football, is their simplicity. Anyone who hears them speak before, during and after a game understands them well. They keep the ball on the ground without having to adapt to the linguistic intricacies of those who try to show in words what they cannot do in facts.

Of footballers

Soccer, a sport of popular origin, belongs to the soccer players of many brainiacs and men in suits that have recently appeared on the scene. In the end, it all comes down to trying to score more goals than they score for you with a ball that, no matter how hard some try to prove it’s square, is still round.

Another of the qualities to appreciate in these Basque coaches is their respect for their rivals, for the work of the professional colleagues they have to deal with and even for the clubs represented by others. Values ​​that are hardly given importance in a round world of football where what seems to dominate everything is the controversy, the ‘show’. Common sense, normality, is not considered much. Soccer, the other soccer.