Latest news with #RealUnion
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Real Sociedad Appoint Francisco to Replace Alguacil as Manager from Next Season
Real Sociedad have appointed their reserve team coach Sergio Francisco as manager from next season to replace Imanol Alguacil who is stepping down at the end of the current campaign, the LaLiga club said on Friday. Alguacil, in charge since 2018, won the Copa del Rey in 2020 and took Real to European football for five successive seasons. He informed the club on Thursday that he will leave the role at the end of the season, when his contract expires. The club have again decided to appoint from within, and Francisco, who like Alguacil, began his playing career at Real, has managed their C and B teams since 2017, having previously taken charge of Real Union in Spain's third tier. Francisco, 45, has signed a deal until 2027, and will take charge of the reserves for the final time on Saturday before dedicating himself to planning for next season. Real are 10th in the LaLiga standings on 42 points and still in with a chance of qualifying for Europe once again.
CNA
25-04-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Real Sociedad appoint Francisco to replace Alguacil as manager from next season
Real Sociedad have appointed their reserve team coach Sergio Francisco as manager from next season to replace Imanol Alguacil who is stepping down at the end of the current campaign, the LaLiga club said on Friday. Alguacil, in charge since 2018, won the Copa del Rey in 2020 and took Real to European football for five successive seasons. He informed the club on Thursday that he will leave the role at the end of the season, when his contract expires. The club have again decided to appoint from within, and Francisco, who like Alguacil, began his playing career at Real, has managed their C and B teams since 2017, having previously taken charge of Real Union in Spain's third tier. Francisco, 45, has signed a deal until 2027, and will take charge of the reserves for the final time on Saturday before dedicating himself to planning for next season.
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Unai Emery at PSG: The historic defeat that casts a shadow over his time in Paris
Igor Emery looks out above Real Union's Gal Stadium and towards France. The border is only a few hundred yards away from Real Union, the Spanish third-division side he and his brother Unai have a majority stake in. The next time Igor crosses the border will be for Unai Emery's return to the French capital on Wednesday evening, with Aston Villa playing Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final. The occasion will mark a touchstone in Villa's rapid transformation under the Spaniard and provoke memories from his two-season spell in Paris. Advertisement 'My brother is a top manager,' Igor smiles. 'I don't say that because of the trophies he's won. I say it because of how he gets them — how he manages, the way he works and because he's invested 200 per cent. He tries all the time to improve and to learn from other people. This may be the key thing. Everybody can say, 'I would like to learn from him' but he tries to learn from others because he really thinks he can keep on improving.' While Emery's imprint on Villa has shown to be an unmitigated success, the perception of him in Paris and at PSG is slightly more complex. In total, Emery collected five domestic honours in two years and yet, fairly or unfairly, is largely defined by those in Paris for one, standalone game. He was a key casualty in what would forever be known as 'La Remontada' — 'the comeback' — after one March evening in Barcelona. Emery arrived in France with a growing reputation for winning in Europe, with three straight Europa League titles at Sevilla. It was hoped that particular bank of experience would be lent on at PSG, a club yearning to win the Champions League, Europe's blue-chip competition. PSG finished second behind Monaco in Emery's opening 2016-17 season in Ligue 1, though the destruction inflicted by Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League two months earlier weighed far greater. They became the first team in the competition's history to be eliminated from the knockout stages after winning a first leg 4-0. That win was on Valentine's Day, but three weeks later, love turned to despair and caused irreversible damage to PSG and Emery. They imploded, with Barcelona scoring in the 88th, 91st and 95th minute to inspire a 6-1 victory and one of the most infamous comebacks in sporting history. A haunted Emery accepted his team had 'lost everything' in the capitulation's aftermath. Sources who also endured the trauma of that night have spoken to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationships and future jobs. Advertisement While many at PSG share admiration for Emery's coaching abilities, there is an acceptance that he is most remembered for a defeat that caused wide-scale embarrassment to the club. 'His time was marked by the famous La Remontada,' says one PSG staff member, who worked closely with Emery. 'We got destroyed, totally destroyed. This was a traumatic time and that trauma stayed. It took us a long time to get back on track because after this match we were the joke of football. 'He is associated with this huge loss for us. This was the worst time ever for the club, because we went from 4-0 up to a game where we felt he didn't prepare the team well enough for what was coming. He did not prepare them as to what it would be like to play there. 'The players were much too relaxed and he made a lot of wrong coaching decisions. It was a total humiliation and in the stadium after, we were in shock.' Sources close to Emery felt PSG's desperation to win the Champions League could, at times, be all-consuming. 'Project PSG' was built on winning the Champions League and appeared to be the be-all and end-all for the club. For Emery, such singular ambition threatened to take for granted success domestically, which included a Ligue 1 title in his second season and two Coupes de France and two Coupes de la Ligue. 'At PSG and Arsenal, he learned about managing situations better,' says a close confidante to Villa's manager. For all of Emery's efforts, the Barcelona defeat sowed the seeds of his eventual demise. 'He did have some success but the problem is that if you ask people, they won't remember — all they remember is the La Remontada and that's the issue,' says a PSG source. 'In this club, you're expected to win Ligue 1 — you're expected to win the national trophies. Everything is centred on the Champions League. That's what you're judged on.' Emery grew up in Hondarribia, in the Basque Country and on the border of France. He can speak a handful of languages, though the perception of him at PSG was that his French could be limited and affected his ability to communicate with players. Similarly to his framework at Villa, he held a close circle of trusted aides, designed to compensate for some of his shortcomings, such as the language barrier. Advertisement 'In France, the obsession is with PSG,' adds a club source. 'I think he had a hard time handling all that pressure, especially as he didn't speak great French which would have allowed him to connect with the public and the team. Whereas his replacement Thomas Tuchel learned it in two weeks. He stayed at a monastery and did nothing else. It was amazing he picked it up so quickly.' The support network built around Emery at Villa is in contrast to the environment he worked in at PSG and then Arsenal. Emery is most effective when he has significant autonomy to shape the club in his image. While he does not demand to be directly involved in transfer negotiations or off-field strategy, for example, he wants governance of all footballing operations. To do this, Emery requests the freedom to put in place a group of confidantes that can carry out his wishes. In Paris, Igor worked closely with him but they were outnumbered by PSG's hierarchy. In comparison, one of the first calls Emery made before joining Villa was to friend Damian Vidagany, who initially came in as his personal assistant so he could manage those aspects off the field. Augmented by the arrival of the president of football operations, Monchi, he and Vidagany take care of transfer negotiations, act as sounding boards for players' and agents' queries and connect the different departments together. It is widely accepted Emery did not have those figures of personal connection at Arsenal and PSG, which ultimately punctured progress. Both clubs are huge institutions, interweaving several large departments. Politics naturally plays a part and requires a deft approach and a certain diplomacy from a manager. It is an all-encompassing remit that involves managing areas outside of just football that Emery, quite simply, did not have time for. Multiple observers describe him as a 'footballing obsessive' solely focused on improving his side from a tactical perspective. He pays little attention outside of his immediate footballing bubble which, invariably, means the structure around him needs to be managed from elsewhere. Unlike Vidagany and Monchi, Emery did not have 'his people' in Paris. This meant that working within an executive structure which was not always aligned allowed schisms to grow and cliques to foster. Increasingly, big transfer fees invited big egos and big money. Advertisement 'I know when I am the main man at the heart of the group and when I am not,' Emery told The Tactical Room in May 2018 and following his departure. 'In every club, you have to know the role you take and the role the rest of the group gives you. My opinion is that, at PSG, the leader is called Neymar. Or more exactly, the leader will be called Neymar because he is in the process of becoming it.' The individual who ruined Emery's first season joined him at PSG in his second. Neymar signed for a world-record transfer fee from Barcelona to the personal delight of PSG's hierarchy, who viewed the Brazilian's acquisition as a demonstration of the club's world standing. The outlay was vast, swelled by the second capture of Kylian Mbappe from Monaco. Together, the pair cost a staggering £344million (€401.26m, $388.16m) and cranked up the pressure on Emery to deliver at the second time of asking. Anything but winning the Champions League would cost Emery his job. A man already under pressure saw the temperature turned up. Emery teams have traditionally been built on cohesion, yet he was steadily finding himself managing egos and individual talent unsuited to a collective style of management. PSG won four domestic titles and, by and large, appeared a team in perfect, working order. They played in a 4-2-3-1 formation and were dominant in possession. They scored freely and were the favourites to win every match in France. This continued until they were knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 by eventual winners, Real Madrid. The writing was on the wall. Soon after PSG were confirmed as league champions with a few weeks left of the campaign, Emery announced he would be leaving upon the expiration of his contract. There was little surprise. Unrelenting speculation about his future had swirled through French media throughout the season, which was not exactly disarmed by an increasingly fractured dressing room. Advertisement Neymar and striker Edinson Cavani argued over who took penalties and various media publications reported cliques in the dressing room. 'It became very dysfunctional,' says one source close to the squad at the time. 'We stayed one more year with him because I think we did not find an appropriate coach to replace him and took a while. 'He had issues with the big players who, after a while, did not connect with him. People like Thiago Motta and Thiago Silva. The issue for coaches like him was when you come to a club that has big players with big experience, they can turn on you fast.' More broadly, however, there was an appreciation for Emery's work ethic and tactical acumen, with that night in Barcelona viewed as an anomaly. But belief in his long-term pedigree became brittle and was he was evidently losing the power struggle. Hatem Ben Arfa was presented to the public on the same day Emery joined PSG in July 2016 but any desire for a close relationship proved remote. They were polarising characters and the separation in how they viewed football was too vast to close. Emery quickly lost patience with the player as reports emerged of his irritation towards Ben Arfa in training and lack of professionalism, while the latter lost confidence in his coaching staff following La Remontada. Ben Arfa ended up training with the reserves, despite protests from team-mates. 'Hatem has known the situation since the start of the season and was reminded about it during the transfer windows,' Emery said. 'Am I sad for him? There are 14 players who can play in each match — that is football.' Emery is known for his meticulousness in training and long, exhaustive hours spent in analysis meetings. High-profile players did not always agree with this approach. 'To have leaders, you have to give them space to express themselves,' Motta told local reporters following Emery's departure. 'It's a way of working, of managing a group. This is not a criticism of Unai, he likes to control everything.' Marco Verratti insisted players had 'found their smile again' once Tuchel replaced Emery, acknowledging a 'difficult' training environment. Nonetheless, the consensus towards Emery from inside the dressing room was not completely unanimous. There were anecdotes of Cavani and Emery's close relationship, where they spoke over the phone early on and learned about one another's footballing passions and backgrounds. Emery wanted to hear about Cavani's childhood in Uruguay and what made him tick. Advertisement A tendency to focus on the specifics is a distinct attribute of Emery's, yet there was a feeling at PSG that he would have been better inclined to concentrate on broader matters, such as managing upwards. Curiously, tactical ingenuity was not seen as crucial an aspect as managing players' egos, considering the squad was enriched with quality and could get by, in most games, on individual talent alone. It was therefore no coincidence that PSG fell short in the Champions League when they had to rely on more coherent game plans and for players to be more disciplined in their roles. On Wednesday evening, Emery returns to Paris, in the competition which ultimately caused his downfall at the Parc des Princes. His reputation has been restored and reaffirmed at Villa, with a setup that enables him to concentrate on footballing matters and possess a level of oversight rarely seen among modern-day managers. It means he can control recruitment, culture and which players are retained and sold. 'It will be a tough atmosphere for him. For sure, it will bring back some memories,' says one PSG source. 'I don't know how he's going to be greeted because, apart from the Barcelona game, everything he might have done decently has maybe been erased. That defeat did not go away for two or three years.' Beating PSG would not be a case of revenge — Emery certainly won't see it that way — more like proof to Parisians that not only was he a victim of circumstance but that he now deserves to be regarded among the sport's managerial elite. (Header photo: Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images)
New York Times
01-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Real Union: The club Aston Villa manager Unai Emery and his family saved from ruin
Early morning Basque sunshine is threatening to break through. Take the first turning off the main road and you will come across Real Union's bar, tucked into the corner of their stadium. Inside, gentle music is playing as a couple of locals enjoy a coffee. The artificial pitch used for training is opposite and Real Union's first-team players have started to trickle out for today's session. Advertisement It is here, in the province of Gipuzkoa, where Aston Villa manager Unai Emery's footballing foundations were formed. Real Union play in Irun, a sovereign community of just over 60,000 in the Basque Country, about a 25-minute drive east of San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa's capital, and four kilometres from Emery's family home in Hondarribia. The Athletic is visiting on the weekend Emery guided Villa into the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace next month, to add to their two-leg Champions League quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain. This is all a world away from the footballing company Emery, 53, now keeps. He has not forgotten his roots though. If you sit high enough up in the ground's largest stand, you can see buildings that sit on French soil, a short distance away to the left and just over the Bidasoa River, which runs past the stadium and serves as a natural border between the two countries, its waters flowing between and around three small uninhabited islands in midstream. To your right and behind the opposite goal, painted white onto black walls, are a series of numbers: 1913, 1918, 1924 and 1927 — the years this club won the Copa del Rey. 'The reason we are here is because of those years,' Real Union president Igor Emery, brother of Unai, tells The Athletic. In June 2021, the siblings acquired a controlling stake in this Spanish third-division side. 'We have family in the history of the club. My father (Juan), uncle and grandfather played here. This is our home. 'I couldn't see my father playing, because I was born in 1980 and even my brother, Unai (born nine years earlier), couldn't. Our father died in 2015, but we know all about what he did at the club because of all the things he told me and my three brothers. 'We would come and watch Real Union all the time. I used to play for the academy when I was 13 and started as a goalkeeper, like my father and grandfather, before moving into midfield.' Advertisement The four Copa del Rey trophies are now proudly displayed in the conference room where we're sitting. Before the Emerys arrived four years ago, they had been strangely stored away. The brothers' grandfather Antonio, also born in Hondarribia, helped win the final two, including keeping a clean sheet against Real Madrid, his greatest moment across 110 appearances, in 1924. Antonio's brother Roman had featured in the 1918 win against Madrid FC, who became Real Madrid a couple of years later. In essence, the Emery name was central in three of the four trophy wins within 14 years. Quite simply, Real Union, Irun, and Hondarribia are in the bloodline. Andoni, another of the four brothers along with Igor, Unai and Koldo, has been the chief groundsman here for the past two years. 'This project can personally be made for us and our family,' Igor says. 'We are working together to get the club right and to go higher (in the Spanish league system), because we have a big history. We are still in a position where Real Union shouldn't be. 'Unai and I started talking about taking over because our other two brothers are not so involved in football and because we would always speak about how Real Union were doing. We would see the results, highlights and then, in 2020, just as Unai left Arsenal and being in the pandemic, everything accelerated in us buying the club.' Unai and Igor spoke to the previous owners and Ricardo Garcia, who served as president for two decades and had turned the club into a public limited sports company. Igor, having gained knowledge of the inner workings of a football operation from accompanying Unai when he managed Paris Saint-Germain and later Arsenal, identified entrenched issues. 'At the start, we were not talking about me being the president,' he says. 'We were talking about trying to help effectively. We learned about some of the problems, but how to solve them when you are inside is not the same as when you are outside or in the stands.' Advertisement Led by Igor, the Emerys have restored stability off the field, yet fortunes on it remain rocky. While staving off relegation from the third division is the short-term priority, long-standing staff say the family's support has transformed the club. Real Union were on the brink of collapse, with wages unpaid and their stadium ageing rapidly. Facilities have now improved, professionalism has increased and unsurprisingly due to the association of a certain Emery brother, the club have been incorporated into V Sports, the group which owns Villa as part of its multi-club model. 'Three years ago, the seats were white and full of rubbish,' says Ricardo Costa, a player at Real Union for seven years and now their goalkeeping coach for the past 19. 'Now with the Emery family, it's better. We are very happy. Daily work is easier for us. We had a lot of problems with money and getting paid. Not now.' 'At the game tonight, you will live it here,' smiles Igor. He is tasked with shaking Real Union out of the deep-rooted malaise and taking them back towards those former glories. Along with fellow Basque sides Athletic Club and Real Sociedad, Real Union was among La Liga's founding members in 1929. Founded in 1915 after two breakaway teams (Irun Sporting Club and Racing Club de Irun) were knitted together — which owed to the mediation of Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain and hence the name 'Union' — the early years were plentiful. Those four Copa del Rey triumphs ensued between 1913 to 1927 (the first of them won by Racing Club de Irun). If the rise was sharp, the fall has been prolonged. The club's peak years mainly lay in the early part of the 20th century and have firmly stayed in the past. Real Union suffered relegation from Spain's top division in 1932 and have never been back. 'Real Union is a modest club, but with the soul of a great,' says Costa. 'Irun doesn't have the economic potential of other major cities, nor a large and boisterous following. On the contrary, the character here is quite humble and simple, somewhat dull and pessimistic. If you add the fact that the average age of our fans is quite high, then the truth is that we don't make as much noise as we should. Advertisement 'We have been fighting to revive old glory. In 2008-09, we achieved our last promotion to the second division in a season that was also historic — we eliminated Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Copa del Rey (on away goals, after the two-leg tie finished 6-6 on aggregate). But as with previous promotions, we couldn't maintain our status and fell back into hell.' Irun is a quiet, uncomplicated area, populated with independent cafes, fashion stores and quaint jewellery shops. Hondarribia to the north is busier and more aesthetic, boasting a coastline that looks across the river estuary towards France and historic stoned buildings. Today, the Gal Stadium is an unusual hive of activity. The first team are playing later against FC Andorra — this season's first Friday home game — and will welcome the visitors' owner and president Gerard Pique, the former Barcelona and Spain defender who helped the national team win the 2010 World Cup and the European Championship two years later. First, however, commercial partners are converging in the hours before. They are shown around the stadium and Igor gives a speech pitchside at the tour's conclusion. Unai Macias Fernandez is Real Union's head of communications but in truth, his job title belies a sprawling remit. Matchday duties include writing for the website, updating social media and, should his hands not be full enough, being the stadium announcer. 'What you don't get at most places are those incredible mountains,' he says. 'I have lived in Irun all my life. Before working here, I was a fan (of the club). The right-back from the second team works at the club. We are a small group. In the academy, there are three or four people (running things). In the office, there are four people in accounts, only me in communication and another person helps in marketing.' Advertisement Gal Stadium was built in 1926 and has had small cosmetic uplifts since to reach a 5,500 capacity. Its name derives from the generosity of local businessman Salvador Echeandia Gal, who gifted 313,000 pesetas (£1,580 in today's money) to buy this plot of land beside the river. The stadium's inauguration was marked with a match against Barcelona. Graffitied walls surround the artificial training pitch. Like the club's other employees, the first team are getting their session in during the morning before retiring in the afternoon for a siesta. The real work starts in the evening. 'Here is where the academy trains,' Macias Fernandez says. 'They train as young as 12 and we now have lots of teams.' 'Since the arrival of the Emery family, our academy has improved considerably, in volume and the quality of players,' adds Mikel Bengoa, Real Union's sporting director. 'We're improving training methods at grassroots level.' Senior figures are bustling around the stadium. They are occupied but hospitable, going out of their way to introduce themselves. Manolo Nieto, a former director on the club's board, is enjoying a glass of wine at the bar, breaking away from his usual tradition of a coffee every morning. There are several cogs to the overall machine, but no part is more influential than the Emerys. It is a relationship, though yet to materialise on the pitch (Real Union are 15th in a 20-team league), that has reconnected staff. 'Unai is the grandson, son and father of goalkeepers,' says Costa. 'His son, Lander, is at Aston Villa and is a goalkeeper. You can imagine the importance that Real Union has always had in his family. The four brothers have absorbed Unionism in their home since they were children. I sincerely believe they've let their feelings guide them to buy us — with their hearts more than their heads. I'm sure their grandfather and father would be proud.' 'The Emery family's first objective when they bought Real Union was to provide financial, social and institutional stability so that it wouldn't disappear,' says Bengoa. 'From that point, they aimed to honour the families who made Real Union great in the past.' The family's synergy with Real Union is unequivocal. Against the family norm of goalkeeping, Unai was a left-sided midfielder, starting locally in Hondarribia before joining Real Sociedad. 'With Real Union, I have a certain sense of responsibility with my father and grandfather. I have that responsibility towards my land,' the Villa manager said after taking ownership of the club. Advertisement 'Logically I am the link, but also a coach abroad, and I focus 99 per cent on that. What we have to do is recover that feeling in Irun. If you ask me what my dream is, it would be for Real Union to be in the first division. But it's a waking dream. I want to ensure Real Union also has its place, its space.' It has just reached midday and two men are out on the pitch. One is Josu Reta, a lawyer and trusted confidante of the Emerys, the other is another of the brothers, groundsman Andoni. The Emerys are fiercely proud of where they were raised. 'Born in Hondarribia' is the first sentence on Unai's Instagram bio and he was close to tears when he received the town's 'gold badge' from the local council in November 2022 to commemorate his achievements in management. Dancers dressed in traditional green and white colours welcomed him into a packed town hall, where family members — including Igor, who made a speech — watched him collect the honour. 'When we recognise high-level merit, the ability to improve and innovate. Leadership, excellence and success. Unai Emery owns all of these characteristics,' said mayor Tom Sagarzazu. A post shared by HONDARRIBIKO UDALA (@hondarribiko_udala) As well as economic factors, societal themes had to be considered when returning to Real Union. Many supporters — 'Unionistas' — had lost faith. 'The fans were not coming anymore,' says Igor. 'The club had a debt with nearly everybody here and they were not taking care of the academy. The stadium was poor and old. We had to change it. The biggest value of this club is our four cups, yet they were behind a cupboard with other smaller ones. Now you can see them. 'You can try to bring good players with a lot of money but sports is different. This is what happened at Aston Villa, right? They invested a lot of money but the results weren't coming. It changed when Unai came because they changed the way they are working.' If Villa's manager can only have a slight focus on Real Union at the moment, then it does little to ease the tension of him watching their matches from his house in Birmingham when the schedule allows. He is in continual communication with Igor and head coach Albert Carbo, who took over in December after being part of his backroom team at Villa last season. The 34-year-old draws on Emery's expertise on footballing matters. 'He is 200 per cent focused on Aston Villa but will have attention on Real Union when he can,' Igor says. 'Tonight he will watch the game and yesterday he was telling me that he was nervous. When he can, he will be here to see the games.' Emery's presence across both clubs naturally lent itself to a more formal partnership between Aston Villa and Real Union. In November 2023, the latter came under the V Sports umbrella. The idea was for a cross-pollination of ideas, where Villa players could be loaned to Real Union, coaches would join them and the general setup would be enhanced through Villa's data and methodology. Advertisement 'Villa staff often come to Irun to monitor the players we've loaned,' says Costa. 'The relationship is very fluid and enriches us. We exchange reports and share work methodologies and databases. And now that Albert has come as a coach, even more so. Last season, one of Unai's technical staff analysts, Jaime Arias, worked with us.' To diversify Real Union, Igor spent time at V Sports' other teams, including travelling to Egypt and meeting ZED FC staff; players from Vissel Kobe, a top-flight Japanese side Villa collaborate with, have been here on trial. 'Obviously, the first reason was Unai,' Igor says. 'Once we signed the partnership, the aim was to bring talent here and to develop them for their return to Villa.' 'Unai comes out a few times a year,' adds James Wright, a 20-year-old goalkeeper on a season-long loan to Real Union and one of four Villa players to have made such a move in the past two years. 'I have weekly meetings with the goalkeeper coach (back at Villa, Javi Garcia), so you always stay in contact. When time goes on and you start to learn what people are saying, and start playing games regularly, you do feel pride that you made the move.' Last December, Real Unions' shareholders ratified an agreement that saw V Sports turn their working partnership into a financial one. Board members approved a capital increase of €4.5million in exchange for V Sports having a 25 per cent stake. 'You see that over there? That's France. So with V Sports resources' help, we can be in the Spanish market and French market,' Igor says. 'It's a way for V Sports and us to have control of a lot of players. If they are not at Real Union directly, we can have their data and watch them. 'My goal is to go into the professional league — La Liga 2 or La Liga. If we get promoted to the second division, we will have the chance to grow more. Our first ambition now is to stay up, and then the second ambition is to be promoted.' V Sports co-owner Wes Edens visited Gal Stadium in February and was pictured with Igor holding Real Union's away shirt. Predictably, the claret and blue pallet is in homage to Villa's home kit. On Saturday Wes Edens was watching our game at Stadium Gal. Thank you for your visit and support! — Real Unión Club Irun (@REALUNIONCIRUN) February 24, 2025 'We would like to explore our partnership with Villa more,' Igor admits. 'We agreed to change the away kit to engage Villa supporters. We knew it was going to be appreciated and we also got Adidas because of their partnership with Villa (fellow co-owner Nassef Sawiris owns a six per cent stake in the sportswear giant, making him its biggest shareholder).' Advertisement Steadily, Real Union are recapturing local supporters while adding more from hundreds of miles away in the English Midlands. During last summer's pre-season, the squad spent a week at The Belfry hotel and golf resort, which is less than a mile from Villa's Bodymoor Heath training centre. They used the Premier League club's facilities before getting a tour of Villa Park and playing a friendly match against League Two side Barrow. Staff were pleasantly surprised to see their Villa-inspired shirts among the crowd that day. 'We are very grateful for the partnership and it gives us more opportunity to sell more shirts,' Igor says. 'Teams in our division, even those above, can't afford to go abroad for pre-season. It's too expensive.' Dusk has turned to darkness and the other side of the French border is no longer visible. The attendance for the FC Andorra match is lower than the average of about 1,000 due to the change in fixture date to a Friday evening, instead of the usual Saturday, and the inclement weather. Carbo coaches from an Emery template, in a 4-4-2 and narrowing wingers. Real Union do not have the fizz in their passing to break lines or sufficient precision from cutback crosses. Any hope of victory is dampened, quite literally, as the rain showers start towards the end of the game. Frankly, the match is uneventful, but given Real Union's challenges, the point from a goalless draw is an important one against their sixth-placed visitors. 'Having the support of a club as great as Aston Villa gives us a sense of security that allows us to work with peace of mind,' says Costa. 'Now a new capital increase has been approved, we're going to have a significant financial boost. Our feelings about the future are unbeatable.'
