Different steps

Jupp Heynckes came to Athletic Club with modern ideas and methods.

“A sauna? And the jacuzzi... what for?” The players kept asking each other questions, because we were very surprised by the changes that began to take place at Lezama, the training ground, under Jupp. He had come from Germany, where he coached Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach. He brought these types of facility for the recovery and rest of the players.

Under Jupp, I made my debut in the first team. He had arrived in Bilbao weeks before the end of the 1991/92 season, and watched several games of Bilbao Athletic – Athletic Club’s second team. As a result, a group of us youth players did pre-season with the first team in 1992.

I don’t know if the decision to bring up so many players from the second team was made by him or the club. The fact is that I was going to do pre-season with the first team when I was still at youth level, at the age of 18. I felt a lot of uncertainty, because I felt too young to enter fully into a professional environment like Athletic’s first team. From the beginning, though, things worked out very well for me.

In the first friendly we played I scored and, as pre-season went on Jupp gave me more minutes. He even put me in the starting line-up for several games. It was all very quick, so much so that I was a starter in the first league game against Cádiz on September 6 1992. It was a date and match that I will never forget. We won 2-1 at our stadium, San Mamés.

"I don’t remember him being a coach who talked a lot to the players in training, but he did have a very positive impact"

Jupp not only changed Lezama; he also brought a new model of play. A very different one from the club’s tradition.

Athletic had always played a more direct style of football, with long balls, headers and looking to win the second ball. I felt very comfortable in that style. The proof is that I progressed through all the youth categories.

Jupp wanted a more elaborate game, with the aim of taking control of the match by dominating possession, and from there to be an attacking team. My game was about coming up from the second line of midfield, and I was very comfortable with that strategy.

I also liked the way he led the group. I don’t remember him being a coach who talked a lot to the players in training, but he had a very positive impact on all of us because of his character. He came to a team that had struggled in recent seasons, and with him we achieved very good results in the two different spells he was there.

In the first spell, between 1992 and 1994, we qualified for the UEFA Cup in the second season. And in the second, from 2001 to 2003, he also improved on the results we’d had in previous years.

"In those instances, as always happens with a team, the coaches are the first to pay the price"

I had the same good feelings with Javier Clemente, who was manager of the Spanish national team from 1992 to 1998. Javi is a man who was everything at Athletic – a player at the club, a coach and, of course, a fan. So he knew me quite well.

When he came to the national team, he began to make a generational change. In January 1993 he called up several players from the Under-21s to make their debut with the senior team – me among them – in a friendly against Mexico in Las Palmas.

From then on, I was in all of Javi’s call-ups. He took me to the 1994 World Cup in the United States when I was only 20 years old, and then to Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup.

As for playing styles, Jupp and Javi were very different, because in the Spanish national team we were looking for the finish above other things. But Javi’s idea also suited my game very well; coming from the second line to shoot or assist a teammate.

At Athletic I had other coaches, including Javier Irureta. Things were going well with him in charge in the 1994/95 season – I don’t really know why a bad atmosphere was generated, but in the end it affected everything. In those instances, as always happens with a team, the coaches are the first to pay the price.

"changes are less traumatic at other clubs, because they can select players from anywhere"

In the middle of that season, José María Amorrortu arrived. If I talk about Jupp and Javi as coaches who were important for me, I can’t forget José María. I was with him at various stages before he became Athletic’s coach – first in the Under-19s, when we won the cup. He was also Jupp’s assistant, so we knew each other very well when he took over the first team.

Jose María was a coach with a new approach in terms of understanding the game and getting his idea across to the player. “You have to know that things are not done for the sake of it, but that there is always a reason,” he kept telling us.

There was also Dragoslav Stepanovic, who succeeded Jose María. He was a great guy – a lot of fun.

‘Stepi’ followed in the same vein, doing new things. Many times we played with three at the back, the full-backs very advanced and the wingers very open – just like Johan Cruyff did at Barcelona. However, he found himself there at a time when there was a rather abrupt generational change at Athletic.

"when you play a wednesday night in europe and a weekend la liga game, you have to rest. it is impossible to play everything"

Changes are less traumatic at other clubs, because they can select players from anywhere. But with Athletic the process of changing the team is different, because the club’s philosophy is different to all others. They only field players from the youth academy and from the Basque Country, which reduces the chances of finding players and makes change more difficult.

It was not an easy 1995/96 season for Stepi (below), but all his good ideas stayed with me.

After that, times started to change. When I made my debut, you played one league game a week and the European competitions had fewer games – mainly knockout matches. That changed with the group stage in Europe, increasing the number of games, and you also played La Liga or the Copa del Rey, sometimes during the week. Then came the introduction of squad rotation. Previously, barring injury or suspension, the same 11 had usually played.

As players, we had to adapt to that situation. But so did the coaches, because in the 1990s rotation was questioned. However, when you play a Wednesday night European competition or the Copa del Rey, a weekend La Liga match and also with the national team, you have to rest. It is impossible to play everything.

"there was nothing greater for me than to play my entire career at the club"

This is what happened under Luis Fernández, during his four years at the club from 1996 to 2000. I stopped being in the starting 11 every game – as had been the norm until then – because we had to rotate.

Something else changed a lot during my last period as a player, because no matter what I did in training, I didn’t play. Even when a teammate was missing from the starting 11 for whatever reason, the coaches didn’t call on me. Despite that, I never gave up. Every day I trained at a high level, because I felt I was ready to play. The coach, however, had a different opinion.

These things happen in soccer. Luis Fernandez, Jupp – in his second stint with Athletic – and Ernesto Valverde all had their ideas, and I respected them. I could have taken the option of leaving for another club, but I decided to finish my career as an Athletic player.

I wanted it to be that way because I have been an Athletic fan since I was a child. There was nothing greater for me than to play my entire career at the club.

"i like journalism, but wanted much more to be a coach"

Shortly after finishing as a player, in July 2006, I started coaching Athletic’s youth team. It was all very quick because I had already done all my badges, having started at 22 years old. I completed the coaching courses because, the day I finished playing, I wanted to be prepared for what would come next.

I had also finished a degree in journalism. Even when I was a player, I was already working with the media: on television and radio, and in the press. When I left football, after a couple of years coaching Athletic’s young players, I did much more media work. There was a time when I was on GolTV, the Cadena SER radio station, and writing for Bilbao’s daily newspaper, El Correo.

But when the call came from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in 2018 to work with Spain’s age groups, it was clear to me what I had to do. I like journalism, but wanted much more to be a coach. More so when they offered me the job of training young players.

In addition, working for the RFEF offered stability for my family that I could not find at a club. It also coincided with the fact that we all moved to Madrid that year, because my daughter had started her university studies there.

"it is a style based on wanting to have the ball and developing intelligent players who know how to interpret the game"

If I started working for a club, I was aware that one day you can be with one one team, tomorrow you may be with another, and later… who knows? We are a family that likes to be together, and I didn’t want to miss that time with them. The fact that the RFEF’s headquarters are in Madrid helped.

Professionally, the RFEF is one of the best places to work as a coach. They have a very high quality of analysis for individual players, the team and the opponents. And it is all with a style based on wanting to have the ball and developing intelligent players who know how to interpret the game. That requires the coach to be constantly learning, to give the players what they need and to know how to take advantage of all their qualities. After all, you are managing the best young players in Spain.

Now there is one who has taken all the limelight. I’m talking about Lamine Yamal, who came with us to the 2023 Under-17 European Championship, as well as Pau Cubarsí. At the age of 16, they were both playing at an extraordinary level for a Barcelona that remains committed to their youth system.

After five years with the RFEF, from 2018 to 2023, I felt that the time had come to take a different step: the commitment of managing a club. In the summer of 2024, I received an offer from Amorebieta. It was a project that I liked because they have many young players and they gave me the possibility of bringing in my coaching staff.

The most important thing for me is my family. Now that my children no longer need me so much, I am able to take a path that I know will come with many ups, downs and changes.

But I am ready. It’s time, and I’m going for it.