Joseba Etxeberria To Play Next Year For Free

By: chris | October 3rd, 2008

For most, the term “giving back” to their club is an expression. Usually it’s staying on when a larger club is calling, or taking the hometown discount when a larger checkbook is waiting around the corner, pen poised.

Not so for Joseba Etxeberria of Athletic Bilbao, who’s truly giving back. In fact, he’s giving it all back next year. As a gift to the club, he’ll play next year for the Basque club entirely pro bono - no salary, no bonuses - before he rides off into the Spanish sunset.

Joseba has played for Athletic since 1995, joining from Real Sociedad at 17, taking part in over 400 games and counting; in the process earning himself over 50 caps for the Spanish national team. So maybe it’s the club, not Exteberria, who should be giving something back. Hopefully at the end of next year his name winds up on something prominent and he wakes up one morning to find a giant red bow adorning a flashy new car in his driveway, at the very least.

There is an unfortunate aspect, however: Etxeberria is only 32, a very young age to retire. The sport, and sport in general, needs more players like him; players who truly play for the shirt, not the paycheck or the fringe benefits. And even though his playing days will soon be over, they likely won’t be his last in the game.

“After so many years here you realise that Athletic is more than just a football club,” he said. “There are so many people working in the background. These have been very happy years for me and my family and I want to give back something that has been given to me.”

“It’s an idea I’ve had in my head for a while now,” the player revealed. “My objective was to play 15 years with Athletic which is a lifetime for a footballer. I’ll be retiring at quite a young age but I was young when I started out. It’s time to make way for the younger lads coming through who are now taking a path that I too once took. In the future who knows what will happen? I’d like to continue in the sport in some way; it’s my life.”

One can only hope Joseba continues so that he can help mold the people of tomorrow, rather than the players.