The Dream Team
Ever since the early days of football in Spain one issue for cantera clubs is the poaching or recruiting of their players by other clubs. After the cantera has trained a player, another club will step in with a tempting offer and take them away. The potential of the Basque Country as a recruiting ground for players was recognised by the likes of FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, and Real Madrid early on. FC Barcelona, in particular, has a long history of signing players from the region going back to Félix Sesúmaga. Others have included Jesús Garay, Jesús María Pereda, José Ramón Alexanko, Javier Urruticoechea and in more recent times, Santiago Ezquerro. During the 1980s and 1990s FC Barcelona cherry picked the best Basque players, among them José Mari Bakero, Txiki Begiristain, Andoni Zubizarreta, Julio Salinas and Ion Andoni Goikoetxea, allowing Johan Cruyff to build the legendary Dream Team around them.
The successful Atlético Madrid teams of the 1960s also included a notable Basque presence in the form of Miguel Jones and José Eulogio Gárate, both recruited from SD Indautxu, and Javier Irureta, signed from Real Unión. Real Madrid has also regularly looked north for players such as Rafael Alkorta, Mikel Lasa, Aitor Karanka and Iván Campo.
Athletic Bilbao, however, have also been regularly accused of poaching. The Athletic policy of recruiting only Basque-players has seen them frequently recruit from the canteras of other Basque clubs. The legendary Athletic Bilbao player of the 1930s, Gorostiza, was actually signed from Arenas Club de Getxo. In 1995 Athletic signed Joseba Etxeberria from Real Sociedad, causing considerable bad feeling between the two clubs.
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Famous quotes containing the words dream and/or team:
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—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)