Surprise and trophy for Athletic Bilbao’s intellectual disabled team

Surprise and trophy for Athletic Bilbao’s intellectual disabled team

The intellectual disability team of Athletic Bilbao Foundation enjoyed a very special training before the last matches of the LaLiga Genuine 2017/18. At the final training before the flight to Vigo, the players of the men and women’s 1st team of Athletic Bilbao joined the training session. This inspired the team so much that they returned with the trophy. 

Damaris and Ainoha, players of the women team, and Sabin and Aduriz, players of the LaLiga men team, participated in the same exercises and also gave their colleague players some additional tips. At the end of the session,  the players played in mixed teams and everyone enjoyed playing together.  With this positive experience in mind, the disability team of the Foundation went with even more self-confidence than before to the final days of the LaLiga Genuine 2017/18 in Vigo. There the team played against the teams of CA Osasuna, Deportivo de la Coruña, and Nastic (Gimnàstic de Tarragona).

LaLiga Genuine: Kick-off in 2016

The tournament in Vigo was the fourth and last event of this years LaLiga Genuine. The league is composed of teams of people with intellectual disabilities. In total 18 Spanish professional clubs of the 1st and 2nd league participate in the league. In 2016 Nastic (Gimnàstic de Tarragona) made the proposal to create a football league for people with intellectual disabilities. Since the start of the project, it grew a lot and developed tremendously. An important aspect of the competition is the focus on values like integration, teamwork, and sportsmanship.  Therefore, the referee, the pitch director, and the opposing teams can evaluate the behaviour of the players and coaches. In this way, clubs are able to earn additional points on each match-day as a reward for fair play. This year the Athletic team earned the most points in the Fair Play ranking and is one of the two winners of the season. RCD Espanyol Barcelona won the most matches and is the winner of the sports competition.