We’ve already brought you many articles by Rory Smith, the leading soccer correspondent forย The New York Times, who covers all aspects of European soccer, writing for one of the leading global newspapers that is most interested in Basque affairs.
This time, he’s published an article about Club Atletico Osasuna, the only first-division Basque team whose name is actually in Basque, as they were playing a Cup final against one of the biggest monsters in global soccer,ย Real Madrid.
The article was published on May 5, that is, on the day of the match, which, as we all know, was a Real Madrid victory by only one point (2โ1).ย Osasuna may have lost, but they fought until the bitter end, putting up an incredible fight against a team that has 11 times more budget and that takes the best players from the whole world, rather than just from its local area.ย Navarre, in contrast, according to one study, has one professional player for ever 22,000 inhabitants.
Because of that, because of its cantera, because Osasuna was able to overcome a crisis that saw it almost dip into third division, because of its players’ commitment and connection to Navarrese society, because of all those reasons, thisย New York Times article covering all this is magnificent.ย It ends by focusing on the most important theme:
De todo esto, de su cantera, de su capacidad del Osasuna de salir de una crisis que casi le lleva a tercera divisiรณn, de la implicaciรณn de sus jugadores, de su conexiรณn con la sociedad navarraโฆ de todo eso y mucho mรกs habla este magnรญfico artรญculo del New York Times, que finaliza centrando el tema en los mรกs importante.
“And so, whatever happens on Saturday, Osasuna will go on being run as it has been for these past eight years, from the nadir to the zenith. There might be a celebration. There might be a commiseration. The club that emerges on the other side will be exactly the same.
โMonday,โ Canal said, โwill still be Monday.โ
The New York Times – 5/5/2023 – USA
The Model Club
It is not quite eight years since Osasuna found itself at what Fran Canal, the teamโs chief executive, described as the โworst moment in its history.โ The team was a single defeat from the ignominy of relegation to Spanish soccerโs third tier. Bankruptcy loomed. The club, he said, stood at the precipice โsocially, economically, in terms of credibility.โ
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Last Updated on Dec 3, 2023 by About Basque Country