Again, the “Gray Lady” is speaking about the Basques. In Thursday’s edition of The New York Times, Rory Smith, the lead soccer correspondent who covers all things European football from his base in Manchester (England, not New Hampshire) has published a detailed, warm-hearted article about a very special tradition about Real Sociedad. Earlier, this same author already gave us an amazing article about Athletic.
Rory Smith, leading the reader to believe he’s going to read about soccer, ends up telling quite a different story, though it is football-related. He speaks of tradition, emotion, commitment, and love for the club. He tells of what lies behind the addiction to this Basque football team.
Patxi Alkorta (Kutxateka) photographed in ‘Kapitain’ magazine
And it’s a tradition that dates back 61 years: launching a flare to announce a Real Sociedad goal in its home stadium. A well-known and indeed renowned donostiarra, Patxi Alkorta, got it started. According to the tale, he wanted to make sure the arrantzaleak, the fishermen, on the coast or in the harbor were kept up to speed on how their txuri-urdin-clad team were playing.
That idea has passed through all the necessary trials to stop being a mere “fancy” and turn into a tradition that is integrated in the Club and its fans: it outlived its creator, and his successor is in charge of announcing Real’s txitxarros; it survived changing stadia, though there were a few years of silence during the transition; it’s even survived the arrival of new technologies that, in theory, would make it wholly unnecessary to announce a goal.
Juan Iturralde launching a flare in San Sebastian (Nacho Hernandez)
We can’t even imagine a goal being scored in Anoeta without the sound of a celebratory flare. We’re sure all those living within earshot would feel the same.
We’ll leave you with the tale as told in both the English and Spanish language editions of the US newspaper. But we’ll also leave you with the article by Pablo Sáenz San Juan on the Kapitain website, telling the same tale, with photos of its protagonist.
By the way, the users’ comments to the English article are well worth the read!
The New York Times – 18/3/2021 – USA
The Rocketman of San Sebastián
As soon as the ball crosses the line, Juan Iturralde is on his feet. He darts back inside his suite, heading for the door. He pauses only briefly, to snatch two bottle rockets from a plastic bag placed carefully, deliberately, in his path. Its location is strategic: Iturralde is, essentially, in the news business, and every second counts.
Goles en el cielo: una vieja tradición mantiene viva a la fanaticada de la Real Sociedad
En cuanto el balón cruza la línea de meta, Juan Iturralde se pone de pie. Corre al interior de su palco, dirigiéndose a la puerta. Solo se detiene brevemente, para arrebatar dos cohetes de una bolsa de plástico colocada con cuidado, y deliberadamente, en su camino. Su ubicación es estratégica: Iturralde está, fundamentalmente, en el negocio de las noticias, y cada segundo cuenta.
San Sebastián, una tarde de domingo de fútbol. La Real juega en casa. Lejos del estadio una explosión en lo alto del cielo retumba en la tranquilidad de la Parte Vieja “¡boom!”. Se produce un momento de tensión en toda la ciudad. Los donostiarras que pasean por las calles hacen una pausa. Esperan. Esperan en vilo. Otro cohete “¡boom!”. Todos saben lo que esa segunda explosión significa: gol de la Real en Anoeta.
This website uses cookies so that we can give you the best possible user experience. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions like recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team understand which website areas you find most interesting and useful.
Necessary cookies activate basic functions like navigation and access to secure website areas. Without these cookies, the website cannot work properly.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
persistent
1 year
This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for the cookies in the “Necessary” category.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary
persistent
1 year
This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for the cookies in the “Non-Necessary” category.
PHPSESSID
session
End of browser session
This cookie is native to PHP and allows the website to save serialized status data. On this website, it is used to establish user sessions by passing status data via a temporary, or session, cookie. This cookie has no established expiration because it disappears when the website is closed.
viewed_cookie_policy
permanent
1 year
This cookie is placed by the GDPR Cookies Consent plug-in and is used to store whether the user has consented to the use of cookies or not. It stores no personal data.
__cfduid
permanent
1 month
Established by the CloudFlare service to identify trusted web traffic.
Marketing cookies are used to track website visitors. The aim is to display adverts that are relevant and appealing to the individual user.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
1P_JAR
persistent
1 month
This cookie is used to transfer data to Google.
DSID
persistent
1 hour
Established by Google, if you have started a session with your Google account on another device, this is used to link your activity between devices and coordinate ads that appear on them and to convert them.
fr
persistent
3 months
This cookie is necessary for the Facebook “Like” button to work.
IDE
persistent
2 years
Used by Google DoubleClick, it stores information about the way the user uses the website and any other ads before visiting the website. It is used to present the user with ads that are relevant according to the user’s profile.
mc
persistent
1 year
QuantCast platform cookie for granular audience measurements. It stores no personal data, only user identifiers and their browsing.
NID
persistent
6 months
The NID cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language, the number of search results you want shown per page (for example, 10 or 20), and whether you want the Google Safe Search filter activated.
uid
persistent
1 year
This cookie is used to anonymously measure the number and behavior of the visitors to the website. The data include the number of visits, the average duration of visit to the website, visited websites, etc., in order to understand the user’s preferences better with regards to targeted ads.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
permanent
5 months
This cookie is placed by YouTube. It is used to trace the information of the YouTube videos that are embedded in a website.
_fbp
permanent
1 day
Used by Facebook to offer a line of advertising products, such as real-time offers from third-party advertisers.
Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
cref
persistent
1 year
Contains data on user navigation interaction and time spent on the website and its sub-pages. This data is used to optimize the relevance of advertisements and for statistical purposes.
d
persistent
3 months
Collects anonymous data on the user's visits to the website, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been loaded with the purpose of generating reports for optimizing the website content.
i
persistent
1 year
Registers anonymized user data, such as IP address, geographical location, visited websites, and what ads the user has clicked, with the purpose of optimizing ad display based on the user's movement on websites that use the same ad network.
KADUSERCOOKIE
persistent
3 months
Registers a unique ID that identifies the user's device during return visits across websites that use the same ad network. The ID is used to allow targeted ads.
KTPCACOOKIE
persistent
1 day
Registers a unique ID that identifies the user's device during return visits across websites that use the same ad network. The ID is used to allow targeted ads.
na_id
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_rn
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_sc_e
persistent
1 month
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_sr
persistent
1 month
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_srp
persistent
1 day
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behaviour and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_tc
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
ouid
persistent
13 months
Sets an ID-string for the specific visitor. This is used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social media sharing function provided by Addthis.com.