Isaac Aketxe

Aketxe was born in Bilbao, Biscay. Having emerged through Athletic Bilbao's prolific youth ranks (although he also played youth football with Basque neighbours Arenas Club de Getxo), he made his La Liga debut on 20 September 2009, coming on as a substitute for striker Fernando Llorente in the final ten minutes of a 3–2 home win against Villarreal CF. He spent the vast majority of his first two seasons at the club with the reserve team, in the Segunda División B. For the 2010–11 campaign, Aketxe was loaned to another side in the region, Sestao River Club of the Tercera División. In the summer of 2011, his contract with Athletic was not renewed and he signed for SD Eibar in division three. Aketxe continued competing in the third tier until his retirement, with Real Sociedad B, Sestao, Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa, Albacete Balompié, FC Cartagena, UCAM Murcia CF and Hércules CF. In 2014–15, while at the service of Cultural, he scored a career-best 20 goals.

Aketxe's younger brother, Ager, was also a footballer and a midfielder. He too was brought up at Athletic Bilbao. Their father, known as Isaac Aqueche due to spelling conventions of the time, played as a midfielder in the lower divisions of Spanish football including a spell with Athletic's reserves.