San Mamés wondered for years what would become of him when Aritz Aduriz was missing , when he ran out of that confidence that came from knowing that, no matter how bad things were, there would always be the probable option that the ' Fox ' would rise to the sky to hunt a sneaky ball and uncork with it the joy of a club, a city, a town. The day has come and immerse Athletic in an unparalleled orphanhood. No traumatic march , and there have been many in the last decade, equals the feeling of helplessness caused by the goodbye of what has simply been the best Athletic footballer so far this century.
The farewell, scheduled for the end of this season , rushes to this May 20 by force majeure. "My body has said enough," admits the striker, who in recent months has struggled to regain his physical condition that would allow him to return to being a decisive footballer. But, 39 years old and a thousand battles fought, reality has imposed itself to cruelly show you that your time is up. Its longevity, however prodigious it may have been, is not eternal. Everything ends, Aduriz ends today.
His hip problems are what have forced the farewell. The striker assumed that the pain he was dragging would accompany him beyond football. "Just yesterday, the doctors recommended that I go through the operating room, better tomorrow than the day after, to put in a prosthesis to replace my hip and try to cope with daily life as normally as possible," he explains in a small letter published in their social networks.
He leaves full, with the only sadness of not having been able to play the final of the Copa del Rey against Real Sociedad , postponed for next season. He longed to be able to retire with a title that buckled an unorthodox career in which success overtook him when the rest of the mortals lined up for decadence. Forever that magical season, 2015/16, in which at 34 he scored 36 goals and in which he achieved the only title of his career, the first for Athletic in three long decades, the most celebrated Spanish Super Cup of all time.
In his last season, his contribution has been limited to 252 minutes in 17 games and a single goal. But what a goal. In its anthology, the Chilean against Barcelona that started the present League will occupy a privileged place . Burgos, Valladolid, Mallorca and Valencia enjoyed him, but it was in Bilbao, the only club he wanted to be in, where he achieved glory. With the selection, he disputed the Eurocopa of 2016 when he was already 35 years old. "Age is just a number", he used to repeat, now and forever already become one of the inescapable myths of the centuries-old history of Athletic.
In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- soccer
- Athletic de Bilbao
LaLiga Santander 2019 - 2020First bad news for Real Madrid: Luka Jovic, injured
LaLiga Santander 2019 - 2020Salvador Illa: "I cannot say now whether professional football is going to be able to restart before the summer"
LaLiga Santander 2019 - 2020The slowdown in football and the unanswered question from their doctors: "Would we return if there were not so many economic interests?