Arsenal goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga featured in a friendly match for the Basque Country against Venezuela on Saturday, helping them to a 1-0 win.
Arsenal goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga wasn’t called up by Spain for the November internationals, meaning it’s now been over three years since his last appearance for the side.
But the shot-stopper was in action on Saturday anyway, playing for the Basque Country in a friendly match against Venezuela.
As the team are not affiliated with or officially recognised by FIFA or UEFA, they can’t play official competitive fixtures.
But the upside of that is that they aren’t bound by FIFA’s international allegiance rules for their friendly matches, so Kepa is able to play for the team despite already committing to Spain.
Kepa played the first 45 minutes of the match and kept a clean sheet, with his team ultimately going on to win 1-0.
The Basque Country have a surprisingly strong recent record, unbeaten in their last nine friendly matches. They generally don’t play more than one match per year, and this was Kepa’s debut for the side.
Considering the goalkeeper hasn’t been able to play many minutes for Arsenal lately, it’s probably a good thing that he got some match action over the break.
Given the infrequency of the team’s fixtures, this isn’t about to become a regular occurrence for Kepa. Not unless the Basque Country succeed in their applications to obtain official international status.
That process is seemingly ongoing, with the association releasing another statement earlier this week to confirm they’ve revived the process. Whether or not they have any chance of succeeding is another matter.
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