IRUN, Spain -- "One of the things I most remember are the telegrams," Aston Villa manager Unai Emery says.
Emery was 11 years old when his grandfather Antonio died at age 76. Messengers began appearing at the family home in Hondarribia, the tiny, pretty Basque town on the Spanish side of the border with France. He had heard some of the stories, but that was what stayed with him: a measure of the man, the pride the family felt, the ties that bind.
"I can see my dad showing me the telegrams of sympathy," he tells ESPN. "From Real Madrid, Barcelona, all the Spanish clubs."
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This is football heritage. Although no one seems sure why, they called Antonio Emery "El Pajarito" (the little bird). Forty-four years on, they still do.
Pajarito Emery worked on the railways and kept goal for Real Unión de Irun, just around the bend in the Bidasoa river. He remains the only goalkeeper to have represented Real Unión in the first division, where they played for four years from the league's inception in 1929. At 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 10,1929, at Sarria where tickets cost two pesetas, Pajarito conceded the first goal in LaLiga history.
Years later, Espanyol's Pitus Prat would recall, if not entirely accurately, how he had hit the shot so hard that even the little bird couldn't save it. This, after all, was the goalkeeper who helped Real Unión win the Copa del Rey twice, in 1924 and 1927, to go with the titles that the small-town team taking on the city clubs had also lifted in 1913 and 1918. The goalkeeper Unai sees when he opens his WhatsApp: his profile picture is a photo of Antonio wearing a lace-up top and knee pads. Either side stand his sons, Unai's father and uncle. Both are pictured wearing a suit and tie, but they would also go on to wear the Real Unión shirt.
Like Antonio, Unai's dad Juan Maria was a goalkeeper, who also played for other clubs including Deportivo La Coruña and Sporting Gijón. Antonio's older brothers, Unai's great-uncles, had played for Real Unión before him. Francisco, "The Tank," won the cup in 1918. Unai's uncle Roman played for them too.
Born into that culture, it was inevitable Unai and his siblings would play. He, though, wasn't a goalkeeper and didn't join Real Unión. His journey took him 13 miles west to the academy at Real Sociedad instead. And from there to far beyond.
By the time Unai set out, Real Unión were in Spain's semi-professional third tier, one of 360 teams spread across 18 regionalised divisions. Relegated from Spain's top flight in 1932, they have never been back, although in 2009 they did briefly reach the second tier and beat Real Madrid in the cup.
As a player, Emery made five first-division appearances with Real Sociedad. But as an immensely successful coach, his career has taken him to Valencia, Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Villarreal and now Villa. Yet home and family pulled, duty towards Real Unión called -- representative of the comarca [district] of Bidasoa, straddling the border.
"Hondarribia was always a fisherman's town," Unai says. "Irun had the customs houses on the border. The other side was Hendaye [in France].
"Real Unión had won the cups, were founder members of the league, historic, and there was always affection for them. But they had been left behind, fallen away. I always felt a family responsibility. When I started coaching, I would look at Real Unión and think 'bloody hell, what a pity, with the history they have, my family link: my grandad, dad, uncle. If we could help somehow ...'"
So they did. In 2021, the Emery family bought their first stake in Real Unión de Irun, a step toward owning the club. Five years on, they are majority owners.
"We did it out of pure sentiment," Unai says. "The club was in a bad way, going down. As far as I could, I had to help, to honour Real Unión, to get people involved: family, friends, the whole comarca. I can't be there as much as I would like, but I'm on top of it. When I can get a break, I go. And we have good people running the club now."
Thursday morning, two days before the match that marks the 100th birthday of Real Unión's 5,000-capacity Stadium Gal, and the president stands at the side of the pitch. A bicycle leans against the stand. Igor Emery, 46, played for Real Unión at age 12; he is also Unai's brother.
Training has finished, voices carrying from the dressing room, and a man pushes a lawnmower across the grass. Igor points and waves, laughing. "Koldo, our brother," he says. "There are four of us: Koldo, Unai, Andoni, me ... Andoni's coming this afternoon. He's a gardener too: he'll do the borders."
And then, with perfect timing, a player comes to say hello. Igor introduces him. "Lander, the goalkeeper," he says, "and my nephew."
Lander Emery, 23, is Unai's son, a third generation of the family in the Real Unión goal. "He did follow the family line," Unai says later. "I don't know why I wasn't a goalkeeper, but Lander is. My dad would take him to the park to play."
Igor leads the way down the tunnel, up the stairs and into a small boardroom. The team's shirt dresses a mannequin in the corner. The sponsor -- Ekipate by UE, which makes kits for local clubs -- is Unai Emery's company. On four small square shelves are Real Unión's four Spanish cups, rescued from an old cupboard, dusted off, polished and displayed, history recovered. "That's an example of how the club had got," Igor says.
He continues: "The owners had been searching for a buyer because the situation was disastrous. Unai knew the president and they knew what Real Unión meant to us. It wasn't so much a negotiation as a 'please.' The club was falling, falling, falling. We knew it was dying. 'S---, we have to act.'
"Its value wasn't zero, it was minus. The structure was something from a local league and there was no spending control. There was a negativity towards the club, its image damaged: a lot of people were owed money. Josu, our lawyer who looks after Unai's affairs, analysed it and said 'you're mad, don't do it.' But, it was all about the sentiment."
The Emery family bought shares, 20% at first, then launched a share issue. The initial €300,000 was just the start. They assumed the debt, determined the club couldn't fold. Although administration and re-foundation might have made financial sense, the lineage, the legacy, even the name, might have been lost.
"We just wanted to keep Real Unión alive," Igor says. "With our heads, it made little sense but we decided with our hearts.
"We went in a bit blind," he admits. "There was a five-year plan that went to pot in the first year. You find things aren't as they seemed, numbers that weren't true. The club was in a delicate state and it's only really been the last two years that we've had full control.
"The timing didn't help: the new [third tier] Primera RFEF division increased costs and demands but with a promise that was broken. Luis Rubiales, then the federation president, said clubs would get €1 million but the TV platform collapsed. The clubs were averaging €1 million in losses each.
"And that's how it all started for us."
It's getting better, even if it has taken longer than imagined. You see it at Stadium Gal, feel it in the people, an optimism and community about the place. The board work long hours for free and Real Unión still operate at a loss, covered by the family. But that loss is decreasing and the club stabilizing, slowly building.
"We were on the verge of disappearing; Unai's arrival saved us," former president and historian Carlos Fernández says. "I'm optimistic: we have our independence back, hope for the future."
"We've created a process, a structure," Igor says. "The facilities are better, our image is stronger. The academy is working, we have women's football. It's a different club now, although there's more to do. Generating revenue is difficult; it's been about finding investment, sponsors, improving facilities."
Enter Unai. Real Unión ended their collaboration with Real Sociedad, seeking greater independence and for the departure of their players not to be a given. As Igor puts it: "They grow a bit and, pum, they're taken from you."
In La Real's place, Aston Villa signed a partnership agreement, then went further: 18 months on, as part of a €4.5 million share issue, the Premier League club's owners, V Sports, bought a 24% stake. After buying an initial 20% stake in the club in a €1.2 million share issue, and then increasing that holding with another €1.5 million investment, the Emerys now own 53% after a third share issue. The rest of Real Unión is owned by small shareholders.
"One day Unai mentioned it to Nassef [Sawiris, Villa chairman]," Igor says. "It speaks to what they think of him, how integrated he is, that they take it seriously. They have other partners, plus clubs they own, such as Vitória de Guimarães, so why not Spain? Five young Villa players have come here.
"The Emery family are the owners and Unai feels a huge responsibility. He wants to be involved, but it's not fully possible from a distance and with a job like his. He's not on the board. On match days he leaves us to it. He messages to wish us luck and to ask how it went. On international break, he might come to Friday training to see how they're working. And Lander's playing too.
"Unai talks about coaching, naturally. He's one of the best in the world. If there's anything he knows, it's coaching. He'll have ideas, opinions about appointments. But I said: 'I know only one coach who would definitely be successful here ... you. I know how you work. So let's find a coach as like you as possible; but it has to be someone who works and fits here. We've had our discussions about that."
Whatever you do, there are no guarantees. "Day to day it's a battle ... then the weekend comes," Igor adds. "And then, you depend on the ball going in the net."
One day, of course, the dream is to return to the primera, the top flight. With Unai as manager? "Playing in primera would be the leche," Igor says. The leche, literally "the milk," means "the business." "Doing it with Unai would be the double leche."
Eibar, from across Gipuzkoa province and not so different historically, are an example they admire, evidence that it's not impossible. But the Emerys know that's not a real target yet, and this is about something deeper, less tangible: about history, identity, community.
"Our idea is to make the club strong, secure, that it serves and connects the comarca," Igor says. "It's about responsibility to our place, being an institution. With football you reach people. The healthiest thing about collective sport is how it transmits values. This is our way of contributing to Bidasoa, bringing people together."
Friday night at Bar Real Unión in a pretty square in the town and the family of Salvador Echeandia Gal sit at a table loaded with Rioja wine and tortilla alongside the club's president, staff and former players.
Salvador was the Irun-born businessman who in December 1924 donated the 150,000 pesetas the council needed to construct the ground which would be given his mother's surname, Gal. Inaugurated against Barcelona two years later, his daughter performed the honorary kickoff. It has been home ever since.
Invited to Irun, Echeandia's descendants have come from a public talk organized by the club at the museum, history recovered and shared. The following day, Stadium Gal's 100th anniversary, an Aurresku, a traditional Basque dance, is performed. Echeandia's great-granddaughter Elena Anabitarte takes the honorary kickoff. And then, it turns out, a wonderful 95th-minute free kick from Luca Sangalli gives them a 2-2 draw. Celebration complete.
A few hours before the game, Igor and Josu are wondering where to watch Aston Villa beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2. A few hours after it, Unai checks in from London. He's seen the highlights but wants to know how it was, this historic occasion for the club they grew up with, where three generations of his family played.
And where a fourth, his, could yet train, back in primera? Unai laughs. "Me, coach? I don't think so, I'm not sure there's time. If one day we return to the first division that would be the dream but, well, it's a dream ...
"It would be lovely to close the circle, but my real dream is for the feeling for Real Unión to remain part of the community, for that sentiment to be there forever, for people to feel emotionally connected to the club. It is to build a training ground with pitches for the town, somewhere to play. With a nice cafeteria, good dressing rooms, facilities, somewhere kids can go, parents too. That's what I'm looking for: a home of football for Irun, for the comarca, given back by Real Unión. That would be the culmination of our work.
"And," Unai says, "I would like it to carry my grandfather's name."
