Iñaki Gabilondo (Donostia, 1942) has been the voice of the most recent history and on the 3rd he wants to break it by celebrating the title of Copa de su Real. He is a fan in the distance and perhaps there is no one who knows how to put words to emotions so well.
What feeling do you have with the mother of all battles?
I'm excited, like everyone else. I am sorry that the opportunity to play the final at the time passed because we wanted to play it with an audience and in the end we will play it without him a year later. But this only loads things up with excitement. What I see is that elements of a psychological, almost sociological nature will have great importance in this party.
Explain …
In the big events, in the decisive days, Athletic sharpens its claws and comes out with an imposing breed and we are awe-inspiring. It happened last year in the semifinal against Mirandés. There was tremendous expectation, with those people who surrounded the bus when it arrived at the field and Imanol himself said that they had been gripped by responsibility. It is what they will now be correcting with that experience. That is the element that I consider the most important. I see Athletic getting the best of himself, even a little more, as always happens in big events and the fear I have is that the opposite will happen to Real, that he will get less, that the feeling of being supported in such an absolute way. They will be working on it a lot.
Does the Real offer arguments to go calmly to the final?
To be calm, no, but the Real has reasons and arguments to be able to trust our possibilities. But in football a lot of elements come into play, technical, tactical and psychological. And the Bizkaians get bubbles on big days and the Gipuzkoans get quiet. I think we have plenty of technical arguments, physical ones too, we create opportunities without stopping, the defense is behaving quite well. We have many reasons and hopes and chances of winning, but I am very afraid of that other factor. Real has a bad resume in that sense and Athletic, no.
Do you have the feeling that we are facing a historical moment?
History once again offers us another opportunity and I would be very angry if we lost by crushing ourselves. If we have to lose, which I don't want to happen in any way, it must be because they played better. That is not because the bird has entered us. Bugs, no. Also, we have enough players from home that we can appeal to that pride. Players must know that the fans are not in any way self-conscious, not paralyzed or scared by responsibility. Will Aritz Elustondo be there?
They want it to arrive for that day.
That is a kind of flag of claw that we will need to have and we will need to transmit, spread. I see Aritz capable not only of having grit, which he has, but of transmitting grit to others.
What prognosis does it make?
I think we will win 3-1.
Are you taking chances with the scorers?
Let one Oyarzabal, another Isak and another Merino finish.
The titles marked milestones in the lives of the ‘realzales’ of more than 40 years, how do we explain what it means to those who did not live it?
As it costs us, those of us who are already very old, something much wider and longer still. That that Royal champion of the eighties was for us an anomaly in our history. We were followers of a very modest team, very fighter, very warrior, very fierce, but it had never crossed our minds to win a championship. People like you were born in that euphoria and that glory and there are others who do not even imagine those glories. And we have to tell him the whole story.
Dare you?
Once upon a time there was a town that had a sporting emotion deeply associated with its team, which was the home team. That hobby and that team had a deeply extraordinary relationship, which the city, Donostia, and the province, Gipuzkoa lived through. Many years of hardship passed, others of modesty, and suddenly we lived a period of formidable glory. Then there were ups and downs. The most bitter thing we've gone through is the time when we lost our personality, when we didn't know what we were. We started signing people crazy. Let us remind the youngest of the glories, the past times of humility, but above all that we have been great when we have had a personality, when we have basically relied on it. We didn't lose it because Aldridge came. We didn't lose it because Atkinson came. We always had a strong quarry base. The years in which we lost our personality were the bitterest for me as a follower.
And now?
Now we have returned to being the team that we have always been, with our strengths and weaknesses, a humble, serious, hard-working team, but that also plays football very well. We have many reasons to say: ‘We are going to the final with the values that have always been ours, supported by our formality, our seriousness, sportsmanship, with people from home and important players from abroad … That is the Real. And the one we want it to be. If you win, the better. If you lose, too bad. The word defeat must be totally banned on April 3. That day cannot be lost, that day we will win 3-1.
How do you see the figure of Imanol?
He was also a footballer, he is from here, he loves Real like we do, he will continue to be responsible and at the same time as a supporter of Real in such a way that all the things we have are focused on him. I really like that our coach is like this. It is as if we were the coach, as if the fans were represented in the locker room by a man who is us, commissioned by us to make the decisions. He is going to tremble with us, he is going to cry with us, he is going to be happy with us and he is going to experience his professional emotions and the emotions of a follower. That keeps us identified with him.