Real Sociedad
Football Club

Real Sociedad, or La Real as they are better known, is one of the oldest and most successful professional football teams from Basque Country. The club has spent an impressive 40+ seasons in the top flight of Spanish football, La Liga. In a similar vein to their main rivals, Athletic Bilbao, the team was so proud of its heritage that it would only sign players who could prove they were Basque. That was until 1989 when they signed John Aldridge, who left Liverpool. They then went on to have many other amazing non-Basque players, including Claudio Bravo, Antoine Griezmann and one of the club’s top scorers of all time, Darko Kovacevic.

The bond between the team and their incredibly loyal fanbase is as well-known as their talented skills on the pitch. Recently, during a historic match with Sevilla in 2012, The Real players wore a fan’s name on their shirts. It’s this loyalty that sees them packing out their 25,000 home stadium.