The first time Gorka Guruzeta played in England, an 18-year-old appearing for Athletic Bilbao B against Borussia Mönchengladbach Under-23s at Adams Park in September 2015, he scored. The second time he played in England, against Sunderland two months later, he scored. The third time, against Manchester City six weeks after that, well, he scored again. When he returned to Manchester to face United at Leigh Sports Village in 2017, he did it once more. It was a superb volley, too. “In fact,” he says, “it’s one of the best goals I’ve ever scored.” So Athletic did what they had to do: they took him off.
“I got well angry,” the Athletic striker says, and then he starts laughing. “There must be a video somewhere. We went to play United and I was pretty good. They didn’t let me play the second half: I hadn’t yet signed my contract, I was scoring goals, there were lots of rumours, you know how it is. I don’t know about Newcastle being interested, but I remember reading about Man United, the typical thing. I have no idea how true it was, but even if they had called, I would have wanted to stay at Athletic. I feel lucky to be here.”
