Athletic Bilbao Cantera
The cantera (quarry) of Spanish professional football club Athletic Bilbao is the organisation's youth academy, developing players from childhood through to the integration of the best prospects into the adult teams.
| Full name | Athletic Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground | Instalaciones de Lezama, Biscay, Basque Country, Spain | |||
| Capacity | 1,500 | |||
| President | Aitor Elizegi | |||
| Coach | Andoni Galiano | |||
| League | División de Honor | |||
| 2021–22 | División de Honor, Gr. 2, 1st | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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The final category within the youth structure is the Juvenil A (Basque: Gazteak A) under-18/19 team which represents the club in national competition. The successful graduates then usually move to the club's affiliated team for younger players, CD Basconia, or occasionally directly to the reserve team, Bilbao Athletic, both of which are also considered part of the cantera due to being stages in progression towards the senior team, albeit competing in the adult league system.
The academy is based at the club training complex, Lezama, which is often the metonym used to refer to the system itself.