Gipuzkoa's Football School Challenges the Big-Club Model

Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all have coaches from Gipuzkoa, a small province in Spain’s Basque Country. More than 500 coaches enrolled in the provincial coaching school this season, a record, according to Josu Zubia Ramos, director of coaching for the Gipuzkoa football federation. The school’s model rests on teaching, local clubs and knowledge passed between generations—not on the resources of football’s wealthiest teams.

Knowledge shared, not hoarded

Gipuzkoa covers 1,980 square kilometres and has a population of about 730,000. The report said it had produced 20 percent of Premier League coaches. Among those who shaped that tradition is Mikel Etxarri, 80, whose name the federation gave to its coaching school. For more than half a century, he’s spread his ideas.

Zubia Ramos called Etxarri “a wise man and a master of football, the teacher of teachers.” Etxarri described relationships between Basque coaches as “a very strong bond.” He said they had experienced professional football “without showing that passion for money, but rather a passion for knowledge.” That’s how he describes a coaching culture built around exchange rather than secrecy.

Andoni Iraola, Xabi Alonso and Mikel Arteta played together in midfield at age eight for San Sebastian youth club Antiguoko Kirol Elkartea. Their shirts hang in the club offices. Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi also came through Antiguoko. Etxarri signed Alonso from the club in 1999, when he served as Real Sociedad sporting director.

The fixtures put that shared history on a high-profile stage. Iraola’s Liverpool were due to host Alonso’s Chelsea in the League Cup on Wednesday, with Arteta’s Arsenal to follow on Sunday. Unai Emery, another coach from Gipuzkoa, was due to take Aston Villa to face Barcelona in the Champions League on November 3.

Local clubs against the giants

Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao have historically formed the core of Basque football. Athletic, in neighbouring Bizkaia, maintains a local-player policy. Real Sociedad ended restrictions on signing players from outside the region in 1989, though its academy remains an important source of players.

The report describes a route from academy to first team that appears clearer than at other clubs. Players can focus on competing for their local team and giving back. Both clubs have limited resources compared with Real Madrid and Barcelona, yet have won the Copa del Rey in recent years and competed in the Champions League. The contrast needs little ceremony: local institutions with fewer resources have developed players and coaches who reach the sport’s biggest clubs.

The school keeps the cycle moving

Etxarri described a cycle in which coaching develops players who understand the game deeply and may later become coaches themselves, carrying ideas forward. “There’s no envy -- I don’t see envy in the way people move -- what I see is that people want to perform, they want knowledge, they want information. And that’s the space we all operate in,” he said.

Zubia Ramos linked that work to Basque and Gipuzkoan culture, teamwork and club identity. “We throw ourselves into it as if we had started our careers there or had been born there,” he said. Arteta has pointed to “the passion” of the people and “the education we all got.”

The setting matters to those describing it. Gipuzkoa has its own language, Euskara, and the report connects its wet, cloudy climate with an outdoor sporting tradition. Children under 10 take part in multiple disciplines rather than specialising; local sports include stone-lifting and wood-cutting. Etxarri also pointed to a culture of high standards, self-improvement and hard work: “Take my own case as an example -- I’ve gone more than 60 years in a row without missing a single year.”

This season’s record enrolment offers a practical measure of the teaching network’s reach. “For such a small population... this season we have more than 500 coaches enrolled in our school,” Zubia Ramos said. The point isn’t a secret formula. It’s a local system where education and shared work keep producing people who teach the next group.