Our connection to Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid a myth?

[Disco Stu]

Perhaps this just passed me by and everyone here has already heard this but I don't rememer seeing any discussion about it.

I always heard the story that a Bilbao player called Juan Elorduy, struggling in his task to bring back 50 Blackburn Rovers shirts while in England, ended up buying 50 Saints shirts before leaving port and thus, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid both wear red and white stripes to this day.

While its charm means this version of events remains the most popular in Bilbao, it seems a fan group called Bilbao Black Cats and some historians dispute this. Their evidence...

• Elorduy was reportedly training in Bilbao during the Christmas he was supposedly in England, making the last-minute purchase in Southampton physically impossible.

• The voyage of the steamship Bachi, owned by the family of the Athletic president, sailed from Sunderland to Bilbao in December 1909, arriving just days before the team debuted the red-and-white kit.

• The specific text "H. A. Murton, 8 & 9 Fawcett Street, Sunderland" is found in Athletic Bilbao museum documentation. This was a sports shop that sold Sunderland shirts.

• Juan Arzuaga and William Llewellyn Dyer, two key figures at the club in 1909, had significant ties to the Sunderland area and may have been active proponents for the change.

• The rediscovery of an antique decorative ceramic plate, gifted from Athletic Bilbao to Sunderland AFC, proves the two clubs had close ties at the time.

It was seemingly compelling enough that last year, Athletic Bilbao acknowledged this alternative origin when previously, the Southampton link was the only accepted story.

 

At least we still have our connection to the purported "father of football" in Brazil, Charles Miller... for now.

Edited 2 hours ago by Disco Stu

[kitch]

That's a bummer, I liked that story!

[Badger]

Another story is that Atletico Madrid (and possibly Bilbao) took their red and white stripes from material that was used to make mattress covers. 

[Doctoroncall]

More background here on Saintsweb

[Turkish]

Load of bollocks we gave football to the world. That Southampton fella that took football to Brazil then we took it to Spain. If it weren’t for us football wouldn’t exist 

[Turkish]

6 hours ago, Badger said:

Another story is that Atletico Madrid (and possibly Bilbao) took their red and white stripes from material that was used to make mattress covers. 

Maybe their owners liked deckchairs?

[manji]

Fitzhugh Fella wrote the definitive article it’s not a myth.

[manji]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-61179882