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Restoring the Soul of Real Sociedad
Real Sociedad has never just been a football club to me. It has been a thread running through my life, stitching together family, friendship, and identity. One of the Christmas presents I remember most vividly as a child was a season ticket. Not just any gift, but a passport to shared moments with my father…
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Not Playing ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’
This July will quietly mark twenty years since I stood on the beach in San Sebastián and watched Bob Dylan play live. Two decades. It feels strange to even write that. I remember the light more than anything, the way it faded slowly over the Cantabrian Sea, the sound carrying differently in the open air,…
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The fan in the stand: a lesson in leadership and loyalty
Football has a way of teaching you things that have nothing to do with football. Like my father did with me when we used to go to watch Real Sociedad play, I’ve made going to matches a tradition with my son. And over the past two weeks, we’ve been fortunate enough to watch our local…
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The act of running, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the power of small actions
Today, I needed the pavement under my feet. Last night brought the sort of news that shakes one’s world: my cousin is in hospital, his condition critical. When life feels fractured, there is a particular, desperate clarity to be found in the steady thrum of a run, a way to outpace, if only for an…
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The Messi napkin: when leadership means acting before permission
In December 2000, Lionel Messi was 13 years old and on the brink of slipping through Barcelona’s fingers. The club wanted to sign him, but nothing was official. Paperwork stalled. Approvals lagged. His family, facing uncertainty over money, medical treatment and residency, was preparing to return to Argentina. So Barcelona’s sporting director, Carles Rexach, didn’t…
EKAITZ SAIES 