Copa del Rey Final: At Osasuna, Fans Are Forged Into Future Stars

Osasuna beat Athletic Bilbao over two legs to reach the Copa del Rey final

There’s a job waiting at the Navarra tourist board when Jon Moncayola hangs up his boots. Straight off the bat he’ll give you two great reasons to visit Pamplona – the famous San Fermin festival, and the less renowned Osasuna.

Moncayola has been a regular at El Sadar Stadium since he was three years old. He started going with his family as a fan, which most residents in Navarra are, given Osasuna are the only professional club in a region of around 650,000 people.

But the 24-year-old is one of the few to have lived out their dream. He joined the academy aged 10 and in 2021 signed a decade-long contract that will keep him at his boyhood team until 2031.

The midfielder will also tell you how Navarros possess a “fighting spirit, of never giving in” – “we’re very headstrong,” he says – and that Osasuna supporters have a legitimate claim to being the most passionate in the division.

They are certainly the loudest, recording a Spanish-record 115.17-decibel roar inside a raucous El Sadar as they beat Real Madrid on the final day of the 2008-09 season to avoid relegation.

More recently, as one of four member-owned clubs in La Liga, the socios voted to renovate a ground that claims to be the league’s highest-attended venue by percentage of its 23,516 capacity.

“It’s something unique, inexplicable,” says Moncayola. “For the few people we can get in, they make it sound like somewhere much bigger, because what you hear is incredible and the atmosphere unique.”

They will be looking to provide a similarly ferocious backing for their side against Real Madrid in Seville on Saturday, when Osasuna face the European champions in just their second Copa del Rey final appearance.