Gora Osasuna!!!!
By: Shane | March 14th, 2008
You may wonder how supporting a small club such as a Club Atletico Osasuna came about, and yes I could tell you a wonderful story about how I left my useless job, packed my bags, jumped on my motorbike with EUR10 in my pocket a dream and embarked on a wonderful journey finally coming across this wonderful city of Pamplona by accident, a la Hemingway and falling in love with it and its team. But that would be a lie, maybe my parents story would be more of the kind, but the reason I support Osasuna is because I was born there. By luck, by accident, by “cosas de la vida” I was born in the city of Pamplona.
And yes Osasuna is not the most glamorous of football teams, not by a long shot. It will never have the likes of Kaka or Messi in the squad, in fact I would go so far as to say they would find it hard to sign the likes of Lee Bowyer although they have had their share of Irish/English players, Sammy Lee and Michael Robinson being the best known. And Robinson despite his declared love of Thatcher has managed to carve himself out a nice career as football pundit on Spanish TV.
Located in the mountainous, northern region of Spain, Navarre or Navarra as the largest of the the basque regions (depending on what bar you eat your tapas in) Osasuna has never achieved much, runner up in the Copa del Rey and 4th place in La Liga are their biggest achievements to date. Their budget is probably not bigger than what you would find in Roman Abarmovitch jeans’ pockets after a night out. And the best player in their current squad is an Iranian named Nukeman…..who???…….exactly.
But unglamorous as they are, Osasuna are the only team that I can possibly love, as they are the team of a place in the world that I love, from its history, to its politics to culture and to the odd overachieving football campaign. Not to mention the great San Fermin festival in the second two weeks of July.
So why not read about this bizarre, at times controversial, always fun team. And lets face it, it’s probably more exciting than supporting ……say….Fulham.
Category: Team News
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Comments
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Great and very informative piece Shane. Thanks for sharing your love of this fantastic yet humble La Liga outfit. This has only fuelled my long standing appetite to go over and see Los Rojillos in action.
Muchas gracias amigo
Marco (Del Rio)Posted from
Ireland
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I,m a life long Fulham supporter , I almost choked on my Chorizo when I read the article but I embrace your passion Shane for Osasuna it great that a town with such tradition & passion can showcase it in on a national stage such as the Nou Camp in Bacelona
Posted from
Ireland -
Welcome to the Offside.
Hope you keep up the great posts. Always thought La Liga is hugely underdone here.
Posted from
Australia -
Welcome. Osasuna’s a great club, and it’s always good to have the smaller clubs represented. As a small-club fan myself (Inverness Caley Thistle), it does me good to see them get the attention they deserve.
Posted from
United States -
Welcome to the La Liga bunch Shane.
It’s good to see someone else in on the action. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about Osasuna.
Cheers!
Ryan (The Sevilla Offside)Posted from
United States -
Welcome Shane, its nice to see more of La Liga getting representation. I look forward to your pieces. Feel free to stop by all of the other La Liga team blogs as well.
Corey
(Real Madrid Offside)Posted from
United States -
Welcome to The Offside, Shane. It’s great to see Osasuna represented here. Hopefully you guys stay up this year and hopefully you personally help to keep us large club “pundits” in check!
You’re off to a rockin’ start so far. Welcome and I can’t wait to keep reading your views on all things Osasuna.
Isaiah
(Barcelona Offside)Posted from
United States -
Thank you very much guys, and hope to keep you updated in all things “rojillo”.
Posted from
United States
Comments are closed
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