‘Every minor detail – execute them’: The striker’s journey from gurney to success with Athletic Bilbao
Thehe debut appearance Gorka Guruzeta competed in English soil, an 18-year-old playing for the reserve team against German opponents at Adams Park in September 2015, he scored. During his subsequent match he took the field in British turf, against Sunderland two months later, he converted. The third time, against Manchester City not long later, well, he repeated the feat. When he returned to Manchester to face United at Leigh’s ground in that year, he scored again. A spectacular strike, too. “Actually,” he states, “it’s a top-class goal I’ve ever scored.” Thus the club did their duty: he was replaced.
“I was furious,” the attacker says, before breaking into laughter. “Probably there’s a recording. Our match against United and I performed well. They kept me out of the second half: my contract wasn’t finalized my contract, goals were flowing, speculation was rife, you know how it is. I’m unsure regarding the Magpies’ pursuit, but I came across reports about Manchester United, standard transfer gossip. I have no idea how true it was, but supposing an offer came, I’d have chosen to stay at Bilbao. I feel lucky to be here.”
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At Lezama, the city, the morning session is ready to commence; post-session, the brief trip to Loiu airport and another trip to England, now to play Newcastle in the UCL on Wednesday. Mentioning that phrase makes Guruzeta smile. This is proving a difficult season for the club, due in part to the pressures of their participation. Defeated late on in the weekend clash, they have won only one of their past eight league games and lost against Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund in the continental stage. Yet, look at the overall situation, the memorable evenings and future challenges, and he feels a calm gratitude within him.
In the 36 months since he had returned to the club, Guruzeta has been a Europa League semi-finalist, prevented from reaching the showpiece event by United, and has boarded a decades-old barge through the waterway flanked by a huge crowd after lifting the trophy, the team’s initial silverware in a long wait. Now he is the top goal-getter in the UCL, where they are countercultural and returning after absence in a long period. “I never imagined this,” he says.
Guruzeta thought it difficult enough just to break into the senior squad and that proved true. As the child of the ex-La Real star the former professional and a dedicated fan at the team he now opposes, Guruzeta is a product of Antiguoko, the local academy that produced the Arsenal manager, the former star and the Bournemouth manager. He joined Athletic at seventeen but after his top-level debut in the 2018 season, he went through a ACL injury, being released, a drop in category and a return before he could finally secure an opportunity, coming back aged 26 to experience the peak of his career.
“Entering the youth system not expecting to reach the first team but with every stage you advance through you’re still there and you can see it getting closer. You arrive and then … you’re sent away.” He featured briefly in six matches in half a dozen appearances between his first game and February 2019. “Subsequently I returned to the filial [Bilbao Athletic, the Under-23s]. Several appearances there and I suffered the ACL injury.
“A severe disappointment but I reflect on it as something positive because it made me change the outlook. Recovering from a long-term injury is difficult, but it’s beneficial. You adopt practices you didn’t have. It’s not that you don’t look after yourself, but I did the sessions and then return home, as a youngster does. At the complex, all resources are available, so utilize it all. Practice, prevention. Get in the gym. If your hips aren’t balanced, address that. If your ankles are a 10, enhance it further. All the minor details: execute them.
“At the top level you’re going to crash into players who have experienced contact countless occasions. Extremely powerful. Reviewing old images: I had slender legs. Thus incidents occur. Look at pictures of me now and the improvement is clear. Injury made me see that. Sessions end, but additional work remains. Teammates are set, really ready; no exceptions.”
Game time is essential. Guruzeta departed emotionally in the pandemic season, aged 23, moving to a lower level. With Sabadell in that season, he scored three times in forty appearances. With Amorebieta in the following period, the he found his form. “Players go through it: loans, terminated contracts. With a turnaround, work, believe, and when eventually a vacancy arises in your position, recall is possible. You have to be ready. When they decided to call again, it was a dream come true. To then win the Copa del Rey, European football, and make the UCL … pfff.”
Understandably he remarks this is to be enjoyed. Particularly after the prior campaign which, on occasions, was involved suffering. From top scorer with sixteen goals, last season he got seven in {15 games more|additional matches|
