bit behind on our actual signings so is

[fulhamben]

 Amorebieta any good? and trying to rack my brains for another but is he our first ever spanish signing?

[Zu-Meister]

venezuelan. hes decent. strong, good in the air, takes no prisoners. prone to the cards. sent off a fair few times. i noticed on twitter a few spanish la liga fans have put him in their best la liga 11.

[fulhamben]

venezuelan. hes decent. strong, good in the air, takes no prisoners. prone to the cards. sent off a fair few times. i noticed on twitter a few spanish la liga fans have put him in their best la liga 11.

venezuelan? did not know tha, thought i heard he was one of those basque kids and played for spains unders 19s. sounds like an upgrade though

[cmg]

Has played both for Basque representative team and Spain u19, but was born in Venezuela and chose to play for them.

[Frankie-Peter Taylor]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back.

[fulhamben]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back.

not confusing at all, except i thought you had to be born in basque country to represent them

[valdeingruo]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back. 

Its funny that the whole basque thing doesn't carry over to video games, you think it would given that its a huge part of their policy. My pro in fifa 13 got transferred to Bilbao

[King_Crud]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back.

not confusing at all, except i thought you had to be born in basque country to represent them

I thought they had some flexibility on that in recent years?

[Brown@FFC]

Kicking Messi in the face should summarise his description.

[cebu]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back.

not confusing at all, except i thought you had to be born in basque country to represent them

I thought they had some flexibility on that in recent years?

I think you'll find that people from the Basque country still have Spanish passports in the parts south of the Pyrenees and French passports in parts north of the Pyrenees.

[JHunter_Fulham4Life]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back. 

Its funny that the whole basque thing doesn't carry over to video games, you think it would given that its a huge part of their policy. My pro in fifa 13 got transferred to Bilbao

I remember one of the comments Martin Tyler had in FIFA 13 mentioned the native thing with Bilbao, but anyone could be transferred there. Probably too difficult/complicated an algorithm, or something.

[King_Crud]

Born in Venezuela, brought up in the Basque. Would have played for Venezuela a few years earlier but there was a rule about you having to change allegiances before the age of 21, that was removed and chose to play for Venezuela, but being brought up in the Basque and having a Basque passport at the point of signing him allowed him to play for Bilbao. Hopefully that's not confusing.

He's a class central defender, if he can carry his form from Spain to here, he'll be our best centre back.

not confusing at all, except i thought you had to be born in basque country to represent them

I thought they had some flexibility on that in recent years?

I think you'll find that people from the Basque country still have Spanish passports in the parts south of the Pyrenees and French passports in parts north of the Pyrenees.

I was meaning the being born there in order to play for Bilbao

[Burt]

Bilbao used to have a policy of only using players who were native to or trained within the Basque region, but this is no longer the case...

[sipwell]

Bilbao used to have a policy of only using players who were native to or trained within the Basque region, but this is no longer the case...

Err... Do you know something we don't? All players of Athletic have either a relationship with the Basque country (one or two parents) or are born there!

[Burt]

The club has relaxed the definition of 'Basque'...

Players who are not Basque but have 'learned their skills' in the region are now allowed to play for them.