Which La Liga minnows are running parallel to Premier League Leaders Leicester City?

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As the world continues to marvel and delight at the way Leicester City have taken on the Premier League’s big boys this year, and for good reason, for the Foxes this season could end in title splendor or, as the sharks begin to circle, it could end in glorious failure. No matter the ending this incredible season for Claudio Ranieri’s men continues to amaze and neutrals are getting behind them like no team similar for some time. However there is a club in Spain that is far and away European football’s overachievers, SD Eibar, the team dubbed ‘a miracle’ by the Spanish press.

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The club from the tiny Basque mountain town in Northern Spain currently sit sixth in La Liga, ahead of their more illustrious neighbours Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad. The 27,440 residents of Eibar could fit into the King Power Stadium and still have plenty of seats to spare. Just under 20% of the towns people turn out each week to watch Eibar at the six thousand capacity Ipurua stadium, nearly 8% more than the next highest.

There is barely an English equivalent and it took quite some time to track one down, in the interest of context. Only one club in the entire football league, Fleetwood, hail from a smaller town than Eibar. In fact just two conference sides, Forest Green and Guiseley, come from towns that boast smaller populations. In the populace standings, Eibar would be 133rd of 136 teams in the top five divisions of English football.

The rise has been meteoric; just over two years ago the club were plying their trade in Spain’s eighty-team regional third tier, and this incredible story almost didn’t happen. Even when they secured their top-flight spot they had to battle the Spanish league for the right to play. Just before the millennium, a rule was ratified requiring every team to have a capital equal to 25% of the average expenses of all sides in the second division, not including the two clubs with the biggest outgoings and the two with the smallest. Further funds were needed just to compete.

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At the time it did seem hugely unfair to deny entry to a team that turns a profit in a league full of teams in huge debt. The Basque club are in many ways a model club, regardless of its size. The ‘Defend Eibar’ fund was established and money began pouring into the club as football lovers worldwide began to learn of their journey. €1.7 million rolled into the club from China, Australia and Argentina, securing their La Liga status and crucially, the club insisted that no investor owned more than 2% of the shares, thus keeping the hometown club status quo.

Last season, their first in La Liga, they finished 18^th but survived on a technicality as Elche were demoted due to financial irregularities and the Spanish courts granted Eibar what was seen at the time as a stay of execution. What has transpired since then has taken everyone by surprise.

There was a flurry of incomings and outgoings in the summer. 14 players arrived at the club, along with a new manager, and they have transitioned from a team that relied on defensive solidity to one that has outscored all but Barcelona and Real Madrid this season. What is the main reason for this remarkable feat? Borja Baston. The on-loan Atletico Madrid striker has scored 16 goals this season and his exploits must have caught the eye of Diego Simeone and his parent club. Baston has formed a great partnership upfront Sergi Enrich, another free transfer, who has weighed in with his fair share of goals and assists.

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SD Eibar are a squad built largely on loans and free signings. So far they have used the resources at their disposal extraordinarily well and it has kept their running costs at a manageable level but it’s a high-risk strategy; they have to hit on almost every signing and for the new players who have joined the club recently with transfer fees attached, the pressure is surely enormous.

This past summer the club bought Japanese attacking midfielder Takashi Inui for under £400,000 and until January he was the biggest outlay in club history. Incidentally he was also at that time the only player in the current squad that has cost any money. Since then Gonzalo Escalante has joined after a impressing on loan at the club, however the registration of Kike, who cost a club record £1.5 million was not completed in time at the end of the window, so sadly crowds at the Ipurua will have to wait until next season to see their  new star man.

Eibar was used by the more successful Basque clubs as a way of toughening up their younger players. Xabi Alonso spent a loan spell at the club as he was beginning to forge his distinguished careers at the club. It is a network they still rely on today. A teenage David Silva went through a similar experience and almost won promotion to La Liga during his loan spell with the club.

Invariably, as the season begins to take its toll on weary legs and squad strength begins to tell. With the astronomical sums being bounded about in football these days, and the dominance of those that have huge financial resources, we have become used to that being the norm, those that spend win. As with Leicester City, history and reason tells us that eventually the size of the task will begin to overwhelm. Perhaps it will, but for the time being Eibar are the little guys succeeding a league full of Spanish giants. It’s a heart-warming story and is restoring the romance that many football fans will tell you has been missing for some time.

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It’s not a miracle that they have survived, after years in the wilderness and a battle to join the big boys this club and its players understand what they have in their grasp and they will work harder than anyone else to hold onto it.

Featured Image – All Rights Reserved by Angel Ezkurra photography.