Athletic Club supporters displayed mixed reactions at San Mamés on Saturday as World Cup winners Aymeric Laporte, Nico Williams and Unai Simón presented Spain's trophy before their LaLiga fixture against Sevilla.
The brief pre-match ceremony featured a guard of honor formed by players and match officials before defender Laporte carried a replica of the World Cup trophy to the center of the pitch.
Laporte lifted the trophy toward the stands to share the moment with the crowd. Goalkeeper Simón, wearing the number 1 jersey and dressed in black, raised his arm in gratitude, while winger Williams walked alongside his teammates to applause from large sections of the stadium.
The victory elevates Athletic Club's historic total of World Cup winning players to five. Laporte, Williams and Simón join former Bilbao players Fernando Llorente and Javi Martínez, who won the tournament with Spain in 2010.
Royal Spanish Football Federation trophy tour
The event in Bilbao was part of a nationwide tour organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, known as the RFEF. The governing body arranged for the trophy to visit the six Primera División clubs that featured international champions in their squads.
Alongside Athletic Club, the tour includes Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Celta Vigo and Atlético de Madrid. According to the RFEF, the initiative was designed to ensure that fanbases across the country feel like direct participants in the national team's success.
The ceremony took place on the opening weekend of the LaLiga season at San Mamés, the historic home stadium of Athletic Club in Bilbao. The match also marked Edin Terzic's managerial debut on the bench in Spanish top-flight football.
Divided atmosphere in San Mamés stands
Despite the celebratory intention of the event, the atmosphere inside the stadium was tense and generated sharply contrasting responses from the crowd. Continuous applause and cheers of support competed against noticeble whistling across the stands.
Opposition to the ceremony was centered in the stadium's Grada de Animación, or singing stand. Supporters in that section voiced their disapproval of the homage through whistles and chants declaring that anyone not jumping was Spanish.
A broad majority of spectators throughout the rest of San Mamés responded to the protests by increasing their applause for the three returning players.
Basque national team protest
The demonstration coincided with a campaign organized by Athleticen Alde Bustiko Gara, an association of Athletic Club delegate members. The group called on supporters to bring ikurriñas, the official Basque flag, to the stadium to demand official international recognition for the Euskal Selekzioa, the Basque national team.
The association also formally requested that stadium operators refrain from projecting images of Athletic Club players wearing Spanish national team shirts on the venue's big screens during the presentation.
Athleticen Alde Bustiko Gara emphasized that its members would never whistle players representing Athletic Club. The organization called for all protests to be conducted with respect, leaving individual supporters free to decide whether to join the applause or remain silent.
