It is difficult to understand the recent years of Sestao River without emphasizing Aitor Villar. The consecrated captain has remained at the Las Llanas club during the four Third Division seasons, where the team from Sestao seemed to always stay on the edge, until two seasons ago they managed to get out of that hole. He has also established himself as an important piece for Aitor Calle these last two years, trying to make the big leap to the First Federation. Whatever the plot, the versatile footballer has always shown his grit and commitment until he sneaked into a select club.
Aitor Villar celebrated 200 games at Sestao River last Saturday. Something that only three other footballers can boast of since the club was refounded in 1996. In other words, he has become the fourth player with the most games played with the green and black. He is only behind Pedro Izurza -284-, Ibón Larrazabal -264- and Txomin Arrotegi -231-. The santurtziarra points out to EL CORREO that “it is an honor.” “Sharing that figure with those three great icons of the ‘River’ is amazing,” he adds. Likewise, he remembers other players who became references for him sharing a dressing room in Las Llanas, such as Ander Gago and Eneko Rubio.
The captain now only thinks of materializing once and for all the promotion to the First Federation that they are already savoring. They have a twelve-point advantage with only five games to go. Therefore, they could seal the championship this weekend, in case they beat Racing Rioja at home -Saturday 5:00 p.m.- and that later Tarazona and Deportivo Alavés did not do the same in their commitments on Sunday. Aitor Villar has already shown his interest in continuing with the sestaotarras next year in that category to “be able to show that I am also worth it in the First Federation”, as he pointed out in an interview with EL CORREO. Thus he could further enhance his legend.
Gaizka Martínez becomes a centenary
He shared his personal success with Gaizka Martínez. At 26 years old, the talented central defender completed one hundred games with Sestao River against Brea two weeks ago. “Sestao River is the club that gave me the option to debut in Segunda B and the one that has always bet on me,” says the man from Getxo. Likewise, he stresses the difficulty that this entails, since “it is not easy to complete one hundred games in a club and even less in these categories, where the contracts are from year to year,” he argues. Martínez also makes a whole declaration of interests, slipping that “it is the club in which I want to be and in which I want to continue growing.”