{"id":773521,"date":"2026-09-17T10:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/773521\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:36:16","slug":"it-is-for-every-fan-who-has-ever-followed-us-bournemouths-european-debut-caps-journey-from-the-brink-bournemouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/773521\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It is for every fan who has ever followed us\u2019: Bournemouth\u2019s European debut caps journey from the brink | Bournemouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is 13 years since Bournemouth<\/a>, a couple of months after finishing runners-up to Doncaster in the third tier, hosted Real Madrid. It was a balmy summer\u2019s day, officially Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s first match in charge, and, a few hours after checking into the Haven hotel on the Sandbanks peninsula, a wave of gal\u00e1cticos took to the pitch: Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Kak\u00e1, Karim Benzema, the list goes on.<\/p>\n

An early, wayward Ronaldo free-kick broke the wrist of an 11-year\u2011old boy before Madrid ran out 6-0 winners<\/a> in a bucket-list friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI retired a month earlier, and I thought: \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s typical, isn\u2019t it?\u2019\u201d says Steve Fletcher, a bona fide Bournemouth legend and now club ambassador who scored 121 goals across 728 appearances, a smile unravelling on his face. \u201cYou play for a club for 20 years, and then you go and get the biggest team in the world to come down. I wanted to say to Eddie Howe: \u2018Can I have five minutes on the pitch?\u2019 For them to play here was utterly ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chart showing Bournemouth\u2019s finishing positions in the league since 2013<\/a><\/p>\n

It was one of the stranger days in Bournemouth\u2019s recent history and on Thursday they will take another step when they face Real Sociedad in their first competitive game against European opposition. On the final day of last season, Bournemouth\u2019s staff and players celebrated qualifying for the Europa League<\/a> by gathering around a \u201cRayanair\u201d flag depicting their Brazil forward piloting a plane, giddy supporters providing the perfect backdrop for the pictures, and those fans have since booked trips to Prague, Oslo and Vigo.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was fate that Andoni Iraola, who grew up in the Basque Country, would guide Bournemouth to San Sebasti\u00e1n. \u201cIt is going to be a momentous occasion, an I-was-there moment,\u201d Fletcher says. He has exchanged messages this week with Iraola, who sent best wishes, including for a win.<\/p>\n

The scale of the achievement is not lost on Fletcher. Iraola, who will return to Bournemouth with Liverpool on Sunday \u2013 with his assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, both of whom also played for the club in the third tier \u2013 was the mastermind. \u201cI always say to people around Bournemouth: \u2018Don\u2019t ever take this for granted,\u2019\u201d Fletcher says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for every supporter who has ever followed Bournemouth: past, present, for the people who passed away, grandparents, great\u2011grandparents. I think everyone will feel very emotional on Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bournemouth reveal their \u2018Rayanair\u2019 banner after qualifying for the Europa League. Photograph: Robin Jones\/AFC Bournemouth\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

La Real are playing in Europe for the sixth time in seven seasons but for Bournemouth, coached by Marco Rose, this is new ground. It was not unplanned, though. At the end of 2023, when Bournemouth were 14th in the Premier League, their bullish American billionaire owner, Bill Foley, predicted they would play in Europe within five years. Foley\u2019s motto \u201cAlways Advance, Never Retreat\u201d adorns a wall in the boardroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe created the Golden Knights, the ice hockey team in Las Vegas, and they won the Stanley Cup within six seasons,\u201d Fletcher says. \u201cHe has obviously got a crystal ball, he can see things and believes in people \u2026 I always think there should be a movie made about this time at AFC Bournemouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young fans waiting to catch a glimpse of the star-studded Real Madrid team in 2013. Photograph: Jonny Weeks\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Fletcher was influential in Bournemouth making it this far. His winning goal at home against Grimsby on the penultimate day of the 2008-09 season ensured Bournemouth would not fall into non-league, the club having begun the season on -17 points after failing to exit administration. He subsequently worked in the recruitment department, as first\u2011team coach to Howe, Gary O\u2019Neil and Scott Parker and then as a player liaison officer. \u201cI\u2019ve still got kit man and groundsman to go,\u201d he says, laughing.<\/p>\n

Adam Smith, the 35-year-old Bournemouth captain into his 15th season at the club, including a loan in League One in 2010-11, remembers the days of training at Canford school, round the corner from the state-of-the-art facility they moved into 18 months ago. Did Europe feel plausible when he signed from Tottenham as a teenager? \u201cI would never have believed you; I\u2019d just think it\u2019s bonkers,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideBenfica dispatch Amorim’s MilanShow<\/p>\n

Ruben Amorim\u2019s Milan were beaten 2-0 by Marco Silva\u2019s Benfica in the Europa League.\u00a0Dodi Lukebakio put the Portuguese side ahead at San Siro in the 16th minute and Jakub Kaminski added a second early in the second half.<\/p>\n

Bayer Leverkusen, finalists in 2024, began their Europa League campaign with a 2-0 win against the Slovenian champions Celje while Lyon were 2-1 winners at Anderlecht.<\/p>\n

The Cypriot champions Omonia Nicosia stunned the La Liga side Celta Vigo 1-0 while Rangers\u2019 conquerors Jagiellonia Bialystok were denied a point at the Greek giants Olympiacos by Roman Yaremchuk\u2019s late winner.<\/p>\n

Sparta Prague thrashed Ararat-Armenia 4-1 while Sturm Graz against Rennes and Hapoel Be\u2019er Sheva versus Dinamo Zagreb both ended goalless.<\/p>\n

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Fletcher references Neil Vacher, the former club secretary and current club historian who grew up as a supporter in the 1960s. \u201cWould he have dreamed that we could even be in the top flight, never mind playing in Europe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bournemouth have been in the top flight for all but two seasons since their promotion in 2015, but Europe hits differently. Most of the squad watched the August draw in the canteen and until this season David Brooks was used to midweek European matches meaning a night on the sofa.<\/p>\n

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He watched his Wales teammate Brennan Johnson lift the Europa League and Conference League<\/a> in successive seasons with Tottenham and Crystal Palace respectively, and another, Neco Williams, excel in the Europa League for Nottingham Forest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bournemouth\u2019s Steve Fletcher (left) and Burton\u2019s Shaun Kelly battle for the ball in a League Two match in 2010. Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cI was delighted for them, but for selfish reasons you want to be involved in teams like that, competing in Europe,\u201d he says. \u201cEveryone\u2019s raring to go and wanting to showcase their talents, and hopefully we can go far. We always cause the big teams in the Premier League problems<\/a> and I don\u2019t think it should be any different in Europe. The club\u2019s journey has been well documented and to finish it off with a European trophy would be really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Madrid game coincided with Bournemouth opening a stand named after Ted MacDougall, another much-loved striker. At the time the pressure was on to ensure the stadium was ready for the landmark fixture, and if that sounds familiar then that is because this summer Bournemouth had to upgrade their ground to meet Uefa regulations. Their first home game is against Sturm Graz next month; the week after, Milan \u2013 whose red-and-black stripes inspired Bournemouth\u2019s kit at the start of the 70s \u2013 come to town. \u201cJust to mutter the words Milan, AC Milan, in the same sentence as AFC Bournemouth, in a competitive fixture, is crazy,\u201d Fletcher says. \u201cI think of Maldini, Baresi, Van Basten, Gullit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stand at the other end of the ground has been named after Fletcher since 2010. Viktoria Plzen and Hapoel Be\u2019er Sheva will visit in December and January. \u201cA lot of people might come to Bournemouth and go: \u2018Who is Steve Fletcher?\u2019 Because I\u2019m not one of the great footballers, but I\u2019m very proud of the career I had,\u201d the 54-year-old says.<\/p>\n

More than 11,000 crammed into Dean Court in 2013 to watch Cristiano Ronaldo and co at Bournemouth. Photograph: Jonny Weeks\/The GuardianBournemouth hosted Madrid on a balmy afternoon in 2013. Thirteen years later they are embarking on their first European campaign. Photograph: Jonny Weeks\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had Premier League managers before games, an hour and a half before kick-off, look over and say: \u2018That\u2019s your stand, very well done.\u2019 People like Jos\u00e9 Mourinho and Pep Guardiola said that and when I walked away I got straight on the phone to my parents and said: \u2018You won\u2019t believe what\u2019s just happened.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There will probably be a pervading sense of disbelief among the Bournemouth supporters in San Sebasti\u00e1n and those tuning in from home on Thursday. \u201cThere will probably be people coming to our European games in their 80s and 90s who will have watched the club from year dot,\u201d Fletcher says. \u201cFor us to be mixing it with some of the giants of European football is magical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beyond anybody\u2019s wildest dreams, and we still have to pinch ourselves. But at the same time, we have to enjoy it, embrace it. I hope there\u2019s many more happy times to come. To think we\u2019re playing someone like Milan in a competitive game is incredible. Wouldn\u2019t it be amazing if in the next few years we could play Real Madrid?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is 13 years since Bournemouth, a couple of months after finishing runners-up to Doncaster in the third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-773521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}