Of San Sebastian, Anthony Bourdain said it might be Europe’s best place to eat. A century earlier, King Alfonso XIII popularized the northern Spanish coastal city as a resort destination when he made it his summer capital.
The sports-loving king, in 1910, also bestowed the royal prefix on San Sebastian’s soccer club, making it Real Sociedad.
San Sebastian is also a cultural center of the Basque homeland, where soccer weaves into the region’s identity. Topping the list of world famous Donostiarras — Donostia is San Sebastian in Basque — are Xabi Alonso and Mikel Arteta. Other signs of the city’s soccer enthusiasm: omnipresent Real Sociedad flags and banners on apartment balconies, boat flagpoles and storefronts.
Spirits are especially high among fans of Txuri-urdin (the white-and-blues) going into the 2026-27 LaLiga season. That’s thanks to the New Jerseyan coach Pellegrino “Rino” Matarazzo, who took Real Sociedad’s helm last December.
“Matarazzo, the coach who made history in half a season,” was the headline in a Noticias de Gipuzkoa article by Ana Úrsula Soto. She wrote:
“Matarazzo injected an energy the team had lacked early in the season and sparked its turnaround. When he took over, Atlético Madrid, Getafe, Barcelona, Celta Vigo and Athletic Club all awaited on the schedule. Real collected 11 of a possible 15 points from those matches, completely changing the outlook of the season.”
Hired to save Real Sociedad from relegation, Matarazzo succeeded — and then some. He guided it to the 2026 Copa del Rey title, Real Sociedad’s second major trophy in four decades.
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