#beloved basques

[minorlotho]

maybe theyre happy spaniards rn that would be nice..(っ˘ω˘ς )

[schmel-schmel]

Yeah I don't know if you like me

Sometimes I think you might hate me

Sometimes I think I might hate you

Maybe you just wanna be me

[protect-daniel-james]

Beloved Basques alert: a documentary! (a trailer rather)

My favorite:

[elmaestrostan]

Howling at these edits on Spanish sports twitter about our Basque Kings.

What is going on behind Mikel there?

Unai looking like he’s about to shoot someone for poaching grouse on his country estate.

Andoni seems to have been clipped from the poster of a budget Hallmark Christmas romance.

[minorlotho]

some baby managers in san sebastián, 1995 - iraola, arteta, alonso in antiguoko. visuals for my fic (notes below)

why’d i make these three specifically a friend group? besides the fact that canonically they’re friends also they’re the ones who I already know. i had to make a better visualization of them as 13-year olds because the photos out there on the internet are mostly frustratingly grainy. here are the references:

Mikel Arteta

i gave him the nickname “txiki” (basque for “small”) because it sounds cute and like the english word “cheeky.” he’d come off as a happy, talented, popular boy. but i think he was very hard on himself at this age, an insufferable perfectionist who would want to kill himself if he’d lose a tennis match, who had a short temper and could be antisocial, who considered himself already too old for his age. (thank u @henry-tasman for sharing your arteta expertise with me.)

Xabi Alonso

a legend in the making what more is there to say!

Xabi + Mikel

you all know these pics already!! the adorable kids that they were

Andoni Iraola

Supposedly these are pictures of Andoni.

that’s definitely Andoni. I love the frog pose Mikel is in, he’s too cute.

Bonus!?

idk who these boys are but could we pretend the one on the right is mikel? i love their poses, the scenery of san sebastián, the vintage photo quality, it’s a photo i can feel.

i got most of these pics from here!

[minorlotho]

more visuals for reason in futility

unai picked up playing the guitar because his older bro koldo was in a band and always had a guitar around the house. he’d play his silly little love songs while playing some basic chords because he‘s so full of ｅｍｏｔｉｏｎｓ about ｆｏｏｔｂａｌｌ

(miki is cheerful, suffering, ambitious, death-obsessed, so young, so jaded)

[protect-daniel-james]

Delicious vampire fighting

[minorlotho]

very sketchy iwtv screencap redraws but the vampires are football managers

(topa = cheers in euskara)