Athletic Bilbao Juvenil

Athletic Club Juvenil A

Full name

Athletic Club

Ground

Instalaciones de Lezama, Biscay,
Basque Country, Spain

Capacity

1,500

President

Josu Urrutia

Coach

Ibán Fuentes

League

División de Honor

201516

División de Honor, Gr. 2, 1st

Website

Club home page

Home colours

Away colours

Athletic Club Juvenil A (Basque: Gazteak A) is the under-18 team of Spanish professional football club Athletic Bilbao based at the club’s training complex at Lezama. This is the highest category within the internal youth structure before the players who are retained sign professional contracts and normally then move to affiliate/reserve teams.

National Competitions

The Juvenil A team play in Group II of the División de Honor Juvenil de Fútbol as their regular annual competition. Their main rivals in the league group are Real Sociedad and Osasuna. The under-17 team, Juvenil B, plays in the Liga Nacional Juvenil which is the lower division of the same structure.

The team also regularly participates in the Copa de Campeones Juvenil and the Copa del Rey Juvenil, qualification for which is dependent on final league group position. In these nationwide competitions the formidable opposition includes the academy teams of Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Real Madrid.

Background and Structure

The top football clubs in the Spanish leagues generally place great importance in developing their ‘cantera’ (quarry - youth system) to promote the players from within or sell to other clubs as a source of revenue. As a club who have a small pool of players to choose from due to their Basque-only policy, this focus on home-grown talent is even more vital to Athletic Bilbao. Most of their current first team players are youth academy graduates (15 of the squad in 2014^[1]). In 2016, Athletic's total of 17 homegrown players (as per UEFA guidelines, 3 years of training between 15 and 21 years old) still at their formative club was the highest across Europe's 'big five' leagues, and far more than all other top clubs apart from neighbours Real Sociedad. A sum of 25 including 8 former trainees at other eligible clubs ranked as the 5th highest, although only 3rd in Spain behind Real Madrid and Barcelona who retained just a few of the many high-level players they produced.^[2]

Markel Susaeta is a recent example of a player who joined the club at a young age, moved steadily through all youth levels and established himself in the senior team

The core of boys from the local Biscay region are first introduced into the Lezama Alevín teams at around 10 years of age and advance by an age group every season through Infantil, Cadete and Juvenil levels. The players who are retained by Athletic after their Juvenil A spell (aged about 17) typically join farm team CD Basconia in Basauri, with the squad normally expanded further with signings from the regions’s youth clubs, most notably Danok Bat and Antiguoko who regularly challenge Athletic, Osasuna and Real Sociedad for the title in their División de Honor group.

The players typically spend 1 or 2 seasons at Basconia before the best progress to the reserve team Bilbao Athletic and then on to the senior team when considered ready to do so. There are exceptions to this sequence; notably Iker Muniain showed such promise that he was promoted early to Juvenil A as a 15-year-old in 2008, moved straight to Bilbao Athletic as soon as he turned 16 in January 2009 and became a senior team regular at the start of the next season.

Head coaches

The coaches are often former Athletic players who themselves graduated from Lezama. The director of the academy is another former player, José María Amorrortu.

Squad	Age	Coach	Tier	League
Juvenil A	16-18	Ibán Fuentes	1	División de Honor (Gr. II)
Juvenil B	16-17	Ander Alaña	2	Liga Nacional (Gr. IV)
Cadete A	15-16	Aritz Solabarrieta	1	Cadete Liga Vasca
Cadete B	14-15	Iñaki González Abadía	2	Cadete División de Honor

International Tournaments

For many years Athletic have been active in entering their youth team into international tournaments to gain experience, and in recent times these events have gained prominence in the football calendar. In 2012 the Juvenil team (including Aymeric Laporte and Iñaki Williams) appeared in the invitational NextGen Series but this was subsequently discontinued.

In 2013-14 Athletic's senior team qualified for the Champions League group stages, meaning that the Juvenil squad could play in the 2014-15 version of the UEFA Youth League. In the subsequent years there was no further chance to participate in that competition due to the senior team failing to qualify. The alternative route into the Youth League would be to win the previous season’s Copa de Campeones but Athletic Juvenil have so far been unable to achieve this.

Athletic successfully applied to compete in the 2014–15 and 2015–16 versions of the England-based Premier League International Cup and also signed up for the 2016–17 competition. However this is officially an Under-23 tournament, and some of Athletic's players were drawn from Bilbao Athletic and Basconia and not directly from the Juvenil group.

A younger age group (The Cadete B squad) also competes in the Manchester United Premier Cup annually. In 1998 Athletic, coached by future senior team boss Ernesto Valverde, won the tournament, although none of the players involved - not even Player Of The Tournament Jonan García - were able to become regulars in the senior team. Coincidentally that season was also very successful for other sections within the club: the senior team finished 2nd in the league and qualified for the Champions League while Bilbao Athletic finished 2nd in their Segunda B group and Basconia won their Tercera section, although neither subsidiary was promoted.

In 2006 (featuring Erik Morán in the squad) and 2012 (including Asier Villalibre) Athletic cadets also competed at the Manchester United Premier Cup world finals as the Spanish league representative after winning the national qualifier.

Current squad

As of August 2016.^[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Sergio García
		GK	Ander Iruarrizaga
		DF	Xabi Naveira
		DF	Eneko Basaldua
		DF	Jon Onaindia
		DF	Asier Arana
		DF	Aitor Aguado
		DF	Sergio Cubero
		DF	Aitor Paredes
		DF	Markel Bravo
		DF	Mikel Kortazar
		MF	Oier Zarraga

No.		Position	Player
		MF	Jon Sanmillán
		MF	Ander Egiluz
		MF	David Nates
		MF	Xabi Atxikallende
		MF	Asier Córdoba
		MF	Ander Dulce
		MF	Egoitz Álava
		MF	Javier Rudi
		FW	Beñat Andonegi
		FW	Aritz Pascual
		FW	Aitor Vellisca
		FW	Xabier Mayordomo

Honours

National competitions

División de Honor (Group II): (regional league)
- 7 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986 (Liga Nacional Juvenil 1975-86)
- 8 1996, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 ( current format since 1995)
Copa de Campeones:
- 2 1989, 1992 (Superliga Juvenil / Liga de Honor Sub-19, single league, 1986-95)
- 0 (current format since 1995)
Copa del Rey: (since 1951)
- 9 times winners 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1984, 1992, 2010
- 8 times runners-up, most recently 2013

References

↑ "Barcelona top list for most homegrown players in major European Leagues". Inside Spanish Football.
↑ "Revealed! Which clubs produce the most of Europe's top players? (November 2016)". FourFourTwo.
↑ "Athletic Club website: Juvenil A squad 16/17".

External links

Lezama summary of facilities at official website
La Cantera De Lezama Unofficial website focusing on Athletic’s cantera teams (Spanish)

Athletic Bilbao

Players Managers Statistics Seasons

Other teams	Bilbao Athletic Athletic (women) Athletic Juvenil (youth)

Home stadium	Lamiako (1901–1910) Jolaseta (1910–1913) San Mamés (1913–2013) San Mamés (2013–)

Training ground	Lezama Facilities

Affiliated Clubs	CD Basconia

Related articles	Bizcaya Athletic Bilbao signing policy

Rivalries	Basque derby

Seasons	1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

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