This season, I’ll be looking for intrastories related to the day current players made their debuts playing in the Athletic men’s first team. Everyone, at least now, has had time with the elite, some more, others less. There may be names that caught your attention related to each star’s debut. The established order is the numbers.
Number five is from Yeray Álvarez. The defender made his Athletic debut on September 15, 2016. A Thursday. It was in a European match. The native of Barakaldo made his debut at the Mapei Stadium against Sassuolo, Italy.
This is the first match of the Europa League group stage of the 2016-2017 season. Yeray used to wear the number 27. He played as a center back with Laporte, who now plays in Saudi Arabia and is an international in Spain. Valverde gave him an alternative.
He almost scored with a header from a corner in the third minute. It will be a debut with a purpose, like Susaeta’s, for example. That day in Italy, the player from Eibartar played 56 games in Europe, surpassing Iribar, who played 55, and finished his mark with 75. Yeray played twelve.
In front is, for example, Paolo Cannavaro, brother of the ‘Ballon d’Or’, Fabio, who also served as center back. Pol Lirola, who was in Elche recently, scored the first goal of the night. A gentleman’s goal.
That day Yeray faced the media we were there and, due to the circumstances, I was the first to ask him his first questions as a lion. I have taught ways because he never fails in his statements. It was the first defeat for Valverde’s team, in a group that also included Rapid Vienna and Genk. Athletic were eliminated in the 1/16 final by Cypriot APOEL led by Thomas Cristiansen, the Dane international in Spain.
Example of life and Messi
Yeray accumulated 212 official matches for Athletic in 8 seasons, scoring 3 goals. He made his debut against Getafe in a 5-1 win at San Mamés, then scored in the Super Cup in Arabia in the semi-final against Atlético de Madrid and against Cádiz last season at the Cathedral. I don’t know about more goals, but this center back would have many more games in his career if he didn’t experience what happened to him in 2016, the same year in which he debuted. He gave us an example of life and that is something I will never forget.
In the rest of the sport, on the day that Yeray made his debut, the national cover of Mundo Deportivo reported that Messi had surpassed Di Stéfano as the Argentine with the highest scorer in history between club and national team. Ceferin was elected the new president of UEFA. Cristiano Ronaldo and Morata scored goals for Real Madrid, almost nothing. And a report of a 2.46m tall Iranian basketball player competing in the Rio Paralympic Games at the time also surfaced.
Yeray was injured again. It looks like it will take a few weeks. We will wait. The rest will be good for him, but he will not be able to return to the competition against Barça, Valencia and Celta, which will be the three rivals that Valverde’s men will have to face before the new national team break. It won’t be something from another Thursday.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
