{"id":7436,"date":"2026-04-19T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=7436"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:15:04","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-real-sociedad-copa-del-rey-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/04\/19\/basque-fact-of-the-week-real-sociedad-copa-del-rey-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: Real Sociedad, Copa del Rey Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">While\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/04\/14\/basque-fact-of-the-week-la-gabarra-a-victory-parade-like-no-other\/\">Athletic Bilbao<\/a>\u00a0receives more international attention, primarily due to their unique policy of signing only Basque players, they are not the only team in the Basque Country \u2013 there are several. Yesterday, April 18, 2026, the soccer team from Donostia, Real Sociedad de F\u00fatbol, won the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Copa_del_Rey\">Copa del Rey<\/a>, their first win since 2000 and only their fourth win in their history. Star player\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mikel_Oyarzabal\">Mikel Oyarzabal<\/a>\u00a0scored one of their goals, with rising star\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ander_Barrenetxea_(footballer)\">Ander Barrenetxea<\/a>\u00a0scoring the other. Led by an American-born coach, this win caps a remarkable turnaround where they were almost relegated to second division only a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-sociedad-copa-del-rey.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-sociedad-copa-del-rey-300x195.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-sociedad-copa-del-rey-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-sociedad-copa-del-rey.png 672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The players of Real Sociedad celebrating their Copa del Rey win against Atletico Madrid on August 18, 2026. Photo from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/real-sociedad-beat-atletico-madrid-penalties-win-copa-del-rey-2026-04-18\/\">Reuters<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>F\u00fatbol came relatively late to Donostia \u2013 the first recorded match was played in 1902, a time when other towns in Gipuzkoa already playing. The sport was brought over from England, by young men who had worked or studied there. By 1903, the first clubs had been established.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To formally compete in official championships, clubs had to be registered. One club in Donostia registered under the name Club Ciclista so that they could play in the 1909 Spanish Championship, the Copa del Rey, which they won. This team ultimately became Real Sociedad. In 1909, they formed their own team, the Society of Football, and in 1910 the Spanish king bestowed the title \u201cReal\u201d, or Royal. Hence, they became known as Real Sociedad de F\u00fatbol, the Royal Society of Football.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 1913, the city and team inaugurated their football field,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atotxa_Stadium\">Atotxa<\/a>, which became their home for over 80 years. The first match in the new stadium as against Athletic Bilbao, a game that ended in a 3-3 tie. In 1993, the team moved to their current stadium,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anoeta_Stadium\">Anoeta<\/a>.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Real Sociedad was one of the founding teams of the Spanish\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/La_Liga\">La Liga<\/a>\u00a0in 1929. In 1931, they briefly changed their name to the Donostia Club de Futbol during the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Second_Spanish_Republic\">Second Spanish Republic<\/a>, but after the Spanish Civil War they reverted back to Real Sociedad de Futbol. Their nicknames in Basque are\u00a0<em><strong>Erreala<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cRoyal\u201d) and the\u00a0<em><strong>txuri-urdin<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cwhite-blue\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Since their founding, Real Sociedad has won the Copa del Rey four times, including that first year in 1909 and most recently just yesterday \u2013 April 18, 2026. The previous win was in 2020, when they beat Athletic Bilbao for the win after a year delay due to COVID. They have also won the Spanish Premier League twice, most recently during the 1981-82 season.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Up until 1989, Real Sociedad maintained a policy similar to Athletic Bilbao in that they only signed Basque players. However, in that year, they signed forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Aldridge\">John Aldridge<\/a>\u00a0from Ireland.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Real Sociedad is more than a men\u2019s soccer team. They also consist of track and field, field hockey, and pelota. In 2004, the group formed a women\u2019s soccer team,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Real_Sociedad_Femenino\">Real Sociedad Feminino<\/a>. That team won the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2018%E2%80%9319_Copa_de_la_Reina_de_F%C3%BAtbol\">Copa de la Reina<\/a>\u00a0in 2019.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Their current coach,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/apr\/16\/pellegrino-matarazzo-journey-new-jersey-real-sociedad\">Pellegrino Matarazzo<\/a>, was born in the United States to Italian immigrant parents. Though obtaining a degree in applied math from Columbia, his passion was soccer. After a less than stellar career as a player, he became a coach and in December, 2025, he was named Real Sociedad\u2019s coach. Real\u2019s winning of the Copa del Rey is his crowning achievement. Just last year, the team was on the verge of being relegated to second division.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">A full list of all of Buber&#8217;s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/basque-fact-of-the-week-archive\/\">Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Primary sources: Cuesta Olaizola, Eneko de la.\u00a0<em>Real Sociedad de San Sebasti\u00e1n<\/em>. Au\u00f1amendi Encyclopedia, 2026. Available at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/en\/real-sociedad-de-san-sebastian\/ar-124806\/\">https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/en\/real-sociedad-de-san-sebastian\/ar-124806\/<\/a>;\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Real_Sociedad\">Real Sociedad<\/a><\/em>, Wikipedia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While\u00a0Athletic Bilbao\u00a0receives more international attention, primarily due to their unique policy of signing only Basque players, they are not the only team in the Basque Country \u2013 there are several. Yesterday, April 18, 2026, the soccer team from Donostia, Real Sociedad de F\u00fatbol, won the\u00a0Copa del Rey, their first win since 2000 and only their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[836,9],"tags":[4060,767,3582,4061,770,4062],"class_list":["post-7436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-sports","tag-ander-barrenetxea","tag-copa-del-rey","tag-mikel-oyarzabal","tag-pellegrino-matarazzo","tag-real-sociedad","tag-real-sociedad-feminino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-sociedad-copa-del-rey.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1VW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7438,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions\/7438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}