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In the last Athletic post I talked about how the club cemented most of their existence in the cantera work, how the philosophy made the youth system vital for Athletic's survival.
Now, many people might think that we sign players just because they are Basque born or raised but not because of their technical qualities. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that.
Athletic's youth system is a dog eat dog world, where kids from all over Euskadi work gruesomely for the dream of making it to the first team, some stay due to their willingness to put on some hard work (and you have people like Koikili or Toquero in the first team to show that) but it is mostly based on two characteristics: physical strength (Basque football is uniquely based on power due to the size of the players) and ball technique.
Sometimes we get good generations, sometimes we get bad ones, all in all we've never been relegated to La Liga Adelante.
The success of a cantera is shown on how many people made it to the first team (7/8 players out of Athletic's Starting XI are from the youth system) and how many people are singled out for the National Teams, with the quality Spain has now, being called is a huge honor and the following Athletic players have been called in the 2010/2011 season:
Senior Squad: Fernando Llorente, Javi Martínez (WORLD CHAMPIONS), Andoni Iraola
U-21: Javi Martínez, Mikel San José, Iker Muniain, Ander Herrera (EURO CHAMPIONS), Ander Iturraspe, Igor Martínez
U-20: Aitor Fernández.
U-19: Enric Saborit, Sergio Mendigutxia, Jon Aurtenetxe, Diego Royo, Eric Morán, Jonás Ramalho.
U-18: Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta, Urtzi Erleaga.
U-17: Aymeric Laporte, Guillermo Fernández, Néstor Salinas.
U-16: Iker Undabarrena, Aitor Seguin, Markel Etxebarria.
U-21: Javi Martínez, Mikel San José, Iker Muniain, Ander Herrera (EURO CHAMPIONS), Ander Iturraspe, Igor Martínez
U-20: Aitor Fernández.
U-19: Enric Saborit, Sergio Mendigutxia, Jon Aurtenetxe, Diego Royo, Eric Morán, Jonás Ramalho.
U-18: Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta, Urtzi Erleaga.
U-17: Aymeric Laporte, Guillermo Fernández, Néstor Salinas.
U-16: Iker Undabarrena, Aitor Seguin, Markel Etxebarria.
As the call-ups show, Athletic has now a young competitive club and the younger guys are slowly but surely stepping up to the plate, there's a good present and a bright future for the club and for our National Team.
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