I was reading the book 'Alice in Sunderland' last night and one of the various odd facts that I came across is the one about a bunch of Mackems who founded the first football team in Spain in the late 19th. Century. A bunch of Sunderland workmen started the Spanish club Athletico Bilbao. So...Barcelona and Real Madrid are a direct result of a bunch of our lads getting the Spanish footy going.
I heard about this a few years back when they knocked the Toon out of the UEFA cup, thought it was myth, but then on checking up, was true, Mackems and a couple of Scotsman. I've had a soft spot for Bilbao since, and am going up there in a months time to take in a game at the San Mames, as it get demolished at the end of this season. Supposedly, the best atmosphere in Spain. What I do find odd, is that a club founded by ex-pats then went on to become what it is today, a Basque institution, still to this day only using footballers from either the Basque country, or with Basque blood (French international Bixente Lizarazu is a former player, a French basque). They are also, as a point of note, the only side outside of Madrid and Barca to never have dropped out of the top tier of Spanish football, meaning that whatever the Mackem lads taught them, they should have also passed on to the team from the city they were born in!
Strange one this, as has been said it was miners and shipyard workers from the Sunderland area. But they formed Bilbao Football club and a couple of years later Spanish students who had been to England formed Athletic Club. They then combined to form Athletic Bilbao. Southampton may have a claim on the strip mind as they originally played in white.
