Copa del Rey: Andoni Iraola: between the magic of Anduva and the San Mams skyline | Copa del Rey 2019

His final retirement from football was announced on New York City in a discreet press release in November of 2016: Andoni Iraola retires from football. But his true goodbye had come much earlier. The Basque soccer player said goodbye to San Mams, of the Athletic Club, in May 2015. Press conference accompanied by his companions, goal in his last meeting in La Catedral and tribute for a One Club Man from the heart The books will say that after leaving Lezama I played two seasons with David Villa, Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard in the Big Apple, but Iraola's heart has always been in the same place.

In San Mams, they dream of someone giving their eternal captain back as a technician. Is he fourth player with the most games in club history, 510, behind Iribar (614), Red Txetxu (541) and Etxeberra (514). A Spanish Super Cup, a Europa League final … And three Copa del Rey finals, those with which he now dreams l from Anduva, the field in which all the magic and all the meaning of what the Copa del Rey should be.

Mirands already did history in 2012 reaching the semifinals, where he fell curiously removed by his Athletic. The Burgos have returned their name among the best in the competition, but they are no longer that unknown team of Second B, now they fight in the silver category and seek to rewrite history, not repeat it. They have left on the way to Celtic and Sevilla, both in Anduva, and they are the only Second team alive in the Cup. Today he receives the Villarreal, as in the sixteenth of 2012, with neutral fans on his side for the advantage of being the little one. If it starts badly, we have to continue the fight. We have to know how to continue, we have to insist, know that there will be moments of difficulty and stay strong mentally, explained yesterday the master, in a speech of fight, strength and insistence That will be perfect in the bleachers of San Mams.

Iraola also wanted to go to Anduva factor. A small stadium that bursts on big occasions with an overturned fans: Having so many people squeeze and give us strength, I resumed. On the grass, the Mirands has reached the quarterfinals of the Cup assimilating what was the Iraola player: does not deny efforts, neither individual nor collective, has a good touch of ball, but he is not worried about playing long, and of course he presses the start of rival play instead of waiting in his field.

Perhaps because of that facility to instill their ideas and similarities, with scales, between Mirands and Athletic, Iraola chose Anduva as her first bench in Spanish football. A soccer-romantic type whose first destination was the youth of the Antiqueoko, club that also saw him become a footballer before arriving in Lezama. From there to Greece, also by cario, for the friendship that joins Ander Murillo, former teammate and sports director of the AEK Larnaca at that moment. I qualified for the Europa League club until I left it in January 2019. In the summer the Mirands offer arrived: The idea of ​​club and my idea, how we understand football, by what model we want to bet and how we do things, They go hand in hand, he explained in his presentation, in which he already talked about losing respect for rivals. Months later they have done it and are ready to rewrite history.