Sports

A match played at Athletic Bilbao''s San Mames stadium on Monday between the team players and 200 local school children by way of a "testimonial" for legendary player Joseba Etxeberria, set to retire at the end of this season, will make it possible to build a football school in the distant town of Liwro, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The match against the 200 school children (in theory, 100 in the first half and 100 in the second) was witnessed live by 20,000 spectators, each of whom paid the symbolic price of 1 euro.

The Basque footballer''s decision to use the money raised in his tribute to fund the football school in Livro follows an emotional video recorded by some Basque aid workers in Congo that featured a group of Congolese children singing the Athletic Club anthem.

The origins of the story go back some years, when Fundación Athletic Club, a not-for-profit organization with links to the Basque soccer club, donated sports material to the children, who named their teams ''Athletic Club Lwiro'' and ''Kahungú Corazón de León'' (Kahungú Lion Heart), after the Basque team.

The Congolese, helped by the Basque aid workers Carmen Vidal, Ainare Idoyaga and Leire San José, recorded the video, which soon won great popularity in the Basque Country. Athletic Club players were delighted with the video and felt they had to do something in return.

The money raised thanks to the ''impossible game'' will be used to fund the building of some stands, and to create and maintain the football school.