Athletic Club are one of the most historic clubs in European football, earning a level of respect around the world with their local, Basque-only policy that enables them to retain a degree of connection few other sides can boast.
Over the years, Athletic Club have produced some of the most gifted footballers in the world. Many of them, such as Aymeric Laporte and Kepa Arrizabalaga, have gone on to start for elite clubs abroad, but so many more have elected to stay in the city of Bilbao and push for European football in their home region.
Let’s take a look at the best XI of Athletic players in the club’s storied history. There are many great players who will end up being omitted, such as Rafael Moreno Aranzadi – aka “Pichichi”, the namesake of the top scoring award in LaLiga – because of era, or because they didn’t get to play as many matches for the club as others.
GK José Ángel Iribar
José Ángel Iribar is one of the most iconic goalkeepers in the history of LaLiga, recently being honored across the league and European football with black jerseys or the jersey No. 80 to commemorate him turning 80 years old.
For 18 seasons, Iribar was the man between the sticks for Athletic Club, building a legacy of greatness with the club that included an appearance in a UEFA Cup Final against Juventus. Iribar won the Copa del Rey twice with the Lions, reaching the final five times.
LB Aitor Larrazábal
The only club he’s ever known, Aitor Larrazábal is a former Athletic Club captain and a proud graduate of its prestigious academy. A legendary left back, Larrazábal played for Athletic across multiple decades, beginning his senior career in the 1989/90 season and ending it all the way in 2003/04.
Larrazábal offered so much to the attack, reaching three goals in LaLiga in seven separate seasons. His best goal-scoring campaign came in 1997/98 with a whopping seven goals from the left back position, helping Athletic Club reach the UEFA Champions League.
CB Genar Andrinúa
A serial winner who was part of the squad that won the 1983/84 LaLiga and Copa del Rey double, Genar Andrinúa is yet another one-club man for Athletic Club. Technically, he spent one season near the beginning of his senior career with the first team on loan at Real Valladolid, but, otherwise, he made over 300 appearances from 1983 to 1997 with the Lions as his only club.
Andrinúa is one of the best center backs in LaLiga history, joining the likes of Larrazábal as another historically great captain of this proud club. He could have chosen to leave the club for another offer in European football, but he always remained true to the city of Bilbao.
CB Carlos Gurpegui
A more recent great of the center back position in Bilbao, modern LaLiga fans may be familiar with the accomplishments of hard-nosed center back Carlos Gurpegui. Athletic Club have quite the list of great center backs – including Dani Vivian, Yeray Álvarez, and Iñigo Martínez today – and Gurpegui is among them, even though he spent most of his career as a defensive midfielder
Gurpegui made 313 appearances for Athletic from 2002 to 2016 in the midfield and center of defense, helping along future stars of the club like Javier Martinez and Aymeric Laporte.
His 2013/14 season was his first at center back, having been moved to partner with Laporte by incoming manager Marcelo Bielsa. Gurpegui would have a season for the ages, boosting Bilbao to yet another Champions League berth.
That season, the veteran defender averaged a stunning 2.9 tackles, 3.1 interceptions, and 6.1 clearances per game, performing as one of the best center backs in all of European football.
RB Andoni Iraola
Currently doing great work as the manager of Rayo Vallecano in their fight for European football, Andoni Iraola was one of the great right backs of modern LaLiga while playing for Athletic Club. Though bigger names at clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid may have overshadowed him in his time, Iraola was respected throughout Spain as a hard-working, no-nonsense wide defender.
Iraola spent one final season with New York City FC in MLS, but, other than, he was a one-club man for Athletic from 2003 to 2015, making over 400 appearances. He appeared in a Europa League Final and three Copa del Rey Finals, helping the club greatly during another fruitful period.
His best season came in 2010/11, as he established himself as one of the best two-way fullbacks in European football. Iraola scored four goals with seven assists, averaging 1.1 key passes per game. He also had 2.1 tackles and 2.1 interceptions per match.
DM Mikel San José
Though he actually moved to Liverpool at the age of 18 as a prospect, Mikel San José would return to the club that developed him as an academy player, writing a legacy of greatness in midfield (and central defense) across a decade at San Mamés.
Mikel San José was one of the best midfielders in LaLiga during the league’s peak, where the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, and Sevilla dominated European football.
The Pamplona-born star scored five goals in three straight seasons from 2012-2015, even though he was mostly an elite defensive presence in defense or midfield.
San José once averaged four interceptions per game in the Champions League group stages! During that time, he was one of the world’s finest defensive midfielders, though he largely went underrated because of the nature of his position, his own consistency, and the lack of spotlight given to anyone besides Bayern-bound Javier Martinez.
DM Josu Urrutia
Perhaps the most legendary of all the great defensive midfielders to play for Athletic Club, Josu Urrutia made 348 appearances for the Lions from 1988 to 2003 – yet another true one-club man on this list of legends.
Urrutia was the definition of a workhorse in midfield, covering all sorts of ground and making so many interventions. Fans in Bilbao appreciated him to the nth degree, as he drove himself into the ground so that he could make life easier for his attacking teammates. The definition of a legend.
AM Iker Muniain
Iker Muniain is 30 years old but still going strong in the 2022/23 as a key creator for a side still pushing to qualify for European football in 2023/24.
Over the years, Munian has been a menace to the rest of LaLiga, beginning his career as something of a prodigy before becoming a grizzled veteran who knows how to step up in the biggest games at San Mamés.
Muniain has accrued 408 appearances in the Spanish top flight since beginning his career with Bilbao in 2009, standing out as yet another true one-club man.
He has notched at least five league goals in six different LaLiga seasons, averaging at least a key pass per game in 10 different campaigns. Muniain has cleared 2.0 dribbles completed per match on two different occasions, including in 2013/14 and 2016/17 when he scored seven goals in both seasons.
LW Iñaki Williams
Although Iñaki Williams has probably spent more time as a center-forward and can play anywhere in the front three, he gets the nod on the left wing.
An Athletic Club all-time XI without the man who set the record for consecutive LaLiga stars simply would not be complete.
Williams is a living icon of Spanish football and maybe the most incredible example of longevity and connection with a club in modern football.
His parents’ journey to Spain and his subsequent rise as a LaLiga icon were chronicled wonderfully by Sid Lowe in an interview feature, and his excellence on the pitch has been evidenced over the past decade.
Since 2014, the Ghanaian, Basque, and Spanish international footballer has made nearly 300 top-flight appearances in the attack for Athletic Club, scoring 61 goals but offering so much more than that.
Williams works harder than anyone in the attack, recovering balls, creating chances, and causing chaos with his intelligent movement off the ball.
A two-time Copa del Rey finalist and Supercup winner, Williams has scored at least seven goals in five different seasons, including a whopping 13 in the 2018/19 season.
ST Aritz Aduriz
A player who will never be forgotten, Aritz Aduriz is a number of top strikers to have played for Athletic Club, but he may be the most iconic for the times he rose above the game to make an unforgettable play.
His match-winning bicycle kick at the age of 39 against Barcelona, for example, will forever live in Spanish footballing lore.
Aduriz played for a number of Spanish clubs in a career spanning four decades from 1999 to 2020, but he is definitely most well-known for the 300+ top-flight games he played for the club at San Mamés.
The Basque striker had a whopping 93 LaLiga goals with 27 assists during a six-year peak from 2012 to 2017 in Bilbao to start his career with the club (having signed from another historic club in Valencia), smashing home 20 goals with two fouls drawn and one key pass per game in the 2015/16 season. Aduriz averaged about 16 goals and 5 assists per season during that span!
A monster in the air, Aduriz was the highest-scoring Spanish player in back-to-back seasons and even led the Europa League in goals in back-to-back seasons, too, notching 15 between the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons.
RW Markel Susaeta
There are quite a few great players who made the right wing their home in the city of Bilbao, but former captain Markel Susaeta has to get the edge among them.
An underrated player in LaLiga during his time in the league from 2007 to 2019, Susaeta is another great player modern fans may be able to appreciate. He made nearly 400 top-flight appearances for the Lions, appearing in even more European matches than Iribar did during his storied career.
Susaeta won the Spanish Supercup, reached three Copa del Rey finals, and was part of the Athletic Club side that made it to the 2011/12 Europa League Final. That season, Susaeta scored five goals in the Europa League with six goals and seven assists domestically.
He would have seven goals and seven assists a season later in LaLiga before hitting a career-high 12 assists with 6 goals and 2.1 key passes per game in 2013/14 to help the Lions reach the Champions League.
One of the best wingers in LaLiga, especially from a creative perspective, Susaeta led by example and wasn’t afraid to put in the work defensively either.
Epitomizing what Athletic Club is about, Susaeta averaged over one interception per game in three straight seasons and regularly averaged more than a tackle per match, including 2.2 in 2012/13.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.