Josu Urrutia
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 Urrutia in 2014 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Josu Urrutia Tellería[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 10 April 1968[2] | ||
| Place of birth | Bilbao, Spain[1] | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)[1] | ||
| Position | Defensive midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1977–1986 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1984–1990 | Bilbao Athletic | 109 | (13) |
| 1988–2003 | Athletic Bilbao | 348 | (10) |
| Total | 457 | (23) | |
| International career | |||
| 1990–2001 | Basque Country | 6 | (2) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Josu Urrutia Tellería (born 10 April 1968) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.
His 17-year senior career was solely connected with Athletic Bilbao for which he appeared in 348 La Liga matches over 16 seasons, scoring ten goals.[3][4] He later served a seven-year term as president of the club.
Urrutia was born in Bilbao, Biscay, and was a product of the youth academy of Athletic Bilbao based at Lezama. He made his first appearance with the club's B side on 9 September 1984, aged only 16, due to a strike by the professional players, and lasted 67 minutes in a 3–1 home win over UD Salamanca in the Segunda División.[5]
Urrutia appeared once for the first team during the 1987–88 season, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–1 home draw against Sporting de Gijón,[6] then took part in a further five La Liga games in the next while also experiencing a relegation followed by a promotion with the reserves. He began 1989–90 still registered with the latter but eventually broke into the former, scoring his first goal for them on 1 April 1990 to help to a 2–2 home draw with Real Valladolid which was played at neighbouring Real Sociedad's ground, Atotxa Stadium.[7]
From the 1990–91 campaign onwards, Urrutia became a very important first-team member, being a valuable midfield element with tackling and stamina skills and a perfect complement for the more attacking Julen Guerrero.[8] He appeared in 30 matches during 1997–98, as the Basques qualified for the UEFA Champions League as runners-up.[9]
After just 25 total appearances from 2001 to 2003 – he only played one Copa del Rey game in the latter season – Urrutia retired at the age of 35 due to recurrent problems in his right knee, having taken part in 401 official matches.[10]
Presidency
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On 7 July 2011, Urrutia won the presidential elections at his only club (54,36% of the votes), becoming only the fourth former player to be chosen for the post.[11] He promised to bring in Marcelo Bielsa as head coach if he was elected, and this eventually came to fruition.[12][13]
In March 2015, Urrutia was re-elected to serve another four-year term after being the only candidate to stand.[14] In the early days of his tenure he had appointed former teammate José Ángel Ziganda to become the coach of the reserves,[15] and six years later, still under the former's presidency, the latter was promoted to first-team duties;[16] he replaced another playing colleague of both men, Ernesto Valverde.[17]
In November 2018, Urrutia confirmed he would stand down as the president of Athletic Bilbao. During a spell heading an 'interim board' until his successor was elected, one of his final acts was to dismiss head coach Eduardo Berizzo – only appointed a few months earlier in place of Ziganda – due to poor results (again it was the reserve coach, this time Gaizka Garitano, who was invited to step into the role).[18] On 27 December, new presidential elections were held, in which Aitor Elizegi won.[19]