Athletic Club de Bilbao Athletic Club, founded in 1898 in Bilbao, is one of the most distinctive institutions in world football. Since its earliest days the club has upheld its cantera policy, under which only players raised in the Basque Country or with Basque roots wear the colours of Los Leones. Despite this restriction, Athletic is – alongside Real Madrid and FC Barcelona – one of only three clubs never to have been relegated from Spain's top flight.
The club's honours include eight Spanish league titles, won between 1930 and 1984, and 24 Copa del Rey triumphs, the second-highest tally in the competition's history behind Barcelona. The symbol of the club's goalscoring tradition remains Telmo Zarra, a forward who played for Athletic in the 1940s and 1950s, won the Pichichi Trophy as La Liga's top scorer six times, and whose league record of 251 goals stood for nearly six decades before being broken by Lionel Messi.
The club's greatest European achievement remains the 1977 European Cup Winners' Cup final, which Athletic lost to Juventus. In 2024, the club ended a 40-year drought by winning the Copa del Rey on penalties against Mallorca, a reminder that the cantera tradition can still deliver silverware.
Athletic play their home matches at San Mamés, nicknamed "La Catedral" since the original stadium opened in 1913; the current, modern arena was built on the same site in 2013.
