Aitor Elizegi Alberdi (born 27 June 1966) is a Spanish entrepreneur, chef and the president of football club

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

from 2018 to 2022.

Biography

Born in 1966, in

Santutxu Santutxu is a neighbourhood of the Spanish city of Bilbao. It belongs to the 4th urban district, named Begoña. It is a popular residential neighbourhood which has a significant number of small businesses and has received some waves of immigration ...

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Elizegi grew up supporting

, becoming a member of the club at the age of 25. Elizegi entered the culinary industry in 1987, winning the Spanish Chefs Championship a year later and the Basque Gastronomy Award in 2000 for best restaurateur at his Gaminiz restaurant. As of 2019, Elizegi is head of a number of

Basque restaurants Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous com ...

in Bilbao, including Txocook, Bascook and Basquery. On 27 December 2018, Elizegi won Athletic Bilbao's presidential election to succeeding former incumbent Josu Urrutia, defeating Alberto Uribe-Echevarría, treasurer under Urrutia, by a margin of just 85 votes. One of his first acts as president was to replace the long-serving

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

José María Amorrortu with

Rafael Alkorta Rafael Alkorta Martínez (born 16 September 1968) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender. He is the current sporting director of Athletic Bilbao. Having represented Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid du ...

and Andoni Ayarza, (both former players of the club), as promised in his election campaign. He did not seek re-election at the end of his four-year term in 2022, with Jon Uriarte appointed to succeed him.

Politics

Elizegi is a member of the

Basque Nationalist Party The Basque Nationalist Party ( , EAJ; , PNV; , PNB; EAJ-PNV), officially the Basque National Party in English, is a Basque nationalist and regionalist political party. The party is located in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been de ...

. Elizegi is a

Basque nationalist Basque nationalism ( ; ; ) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since ...

and independentist, and has expressed a desire for the admittance of a

Basque national football team The Basque Country national football team () represents the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country in association football, football. It selects players from the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country autonomous community ...

into

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Notes

References

1966 births Living people People from Bilbao Athletic Bilbao presidents Spanish businesspeople Spanish chefs Basque nationalists Basque cuisine Businesspeople from the Basque Country (autonomous community) {{Spain-footy-bio-stub