Chronicle Athletic is the Ace of Cups (1-2)
101 years later, another Barça-Athletic final
Nothing less than 10 million euros plus two in variables, in the midst of a pandemic and for a position in which Athletic had a choice.
A priori there were not too many favorable arguments to undertake an operation with these conditions last summer.
But
Gaizka Garitano
insisted and insisted.
He understood that
Álex Berenguer
was a necessary footballer for this Athletic team because, unlike the rest of his band players, he had a facility for scoring, a facet of the game that Aduriz's withdrawal left quite an orphan.
And the now former Athletic coach pressed so hard that
Rafa Alkorta
and
Aitor Elizegi
decided that yes, they were going to sign Berenguer.
Today the Navarrese winger is the
team's top
scorer
and, above all, the hero who has catapulted Athletic to a new final in the Copa del Rey, to the second in a row, to the second of the two that
Marcelino's
team will play
between the 3 and April 17, who dreams of adding another two titles in this dream 2021 that began with a Super Cup and could end in a triplet.
And it was Berenguer's goal, in the 112th minute, accompanied by a lucky rebound from
Nikola Vukcevic
, which allowed the near future to be so exciting for Athletic.
Of course, the past months were not as positive for Berenguer as the last one has been, in which he has scored four of his seven goals (and in Orriols he scored another, annulled by
Óscar Duarte's
previous penalty
on
Raúl García
).
The finally dismissed Garitano landed in an exhausted project, in which he even lost confidence in his courage.
Then Marcelino arrived and from the beginning he pointed to the bench.
He played almost every game, but he used to do it as a substitute, yielding the right wing to the duo formed by Capa and
Óscar de Marcos
.
Orderly and quiet life
Lacking confidence and wisdom, the double he achieved just three weeks ago in Cádiz was a turning point for him.
He won the title on his own merits, forcing
Ander Capa
and De Marcos to alternate behind him in the winger position, and has mitigated the loss of performance of a
heavenly
Iker Muniain in
the previous weeks and suffered from physical discomfort.
Perhaps he still has to be more regular during the 90 minutes, give more continuity to his team's game, but with such a thrashed production, the rest of the facets matter little.
Enjoy now as you suffered before, with a low profile.
He enjoys an orderly and quiet life, settled in a luxurious urbanization on the outskirts of Bilbao, next to his girlfriend Sofía, with whom he has been in a relationship for years.
Together with her he went to Turin in 2017, when Osasuna transferred him to Torino after going down to Second.
Already then Athletic wanted him, which ended up seeing the price they were asking from Pamplona abusive.
From 'ground zero'
In Piedmont he has grown as a footballer and he also had to live there the beginning of the pandemic, as he told EL MUNDO a few months ago.
In one of the 'zero zones' of the virus in Europe, Berenguer passed the long confinement and immediately became aware of the seriousness of the situation and also of his privileged position as a footballer, making a generous donation to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, a of the most shaken cities in Europe at the beginning of the nightmare.
Back in Spain, the Osasuna youth squad has already surpassed the best scoring record of his life and has crept into the recent history of Athletic.
Nobody thinks that Berenguer is expensive anymore.
Nor that the pandemic advised against his signing.
Nor that there were more than enough players to play on the wing.
And Gaizka Garitano smiles from home.
Because his Athletic will play another final, even without him on the bench, and because, indeed, he was right to insist so much on the signing of Berenguer.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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See links of interest
2021 business calendar
Zenit Saint Petersburg - Real Madrid
West Bromwich Albion - Everton
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv - Valencia Basket
Parma - Internazionale
Levante - Athletic, live