Nico Williams’ move to Barcelona has been the stuff of soap operas, with the press claiming the EURO star would be heading to Camp Nou, then saying it wasn’t. With just a few weeks left until the transfer window closes, Sport yesterday afternoon revealed that club sources had confirmed the Athletic player had agreed to move to Barcelona.
Nico Williams will leave Athletic Bilbao in the summer
Less than a month on from the EURO 2024 final and Barcelona’s potential signing of Nico Williams has seen a number of surprises, most recently on Sunday afternoon when Spanish newspaper Sport reported that Barcelona had received the Spaniard’s consent to leave Athletic and join Hansi Flick’s side.
Nico Williams’s move to the squad is expected to be completed next week, with the payment of his €62m buyout clause still to be worked out. There is also a need to agree a salary that is befitting the status of the winger, who was tipped as a world football star in the summer.
Just a few days ago, Nico Williams appeared in a video shared by the club, showing his maturity to suggest that he would stay at Athletic. However, doubts arose when Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde did not name Nico in the squad for the friendly against Stuttgart, although everything indicated that the reason was because Nico had to work on his fitness after the holidays and that it would be unreasonable for him to return to German soil.
But Nico William is a big expectation of Barcelona fans and people understand that if they do not take advantage of the 62 million euro buyout clause right now, Barcelona will probably have no chance to recruit Nico when the transfer price will be pushed up to 100 or even 150 million as the clause that Athletic is preparing to include in the contract.
It is amazing that Barcelona, in their shaky financial situation, managed to challenge themselves with this deal when they had just completed the signing of Dani Olmo for around €50m from Leipzig.
Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, a dream come true, La Roja’s divine duo in the summer could help Barcelona overthrow the empire Real Madrid just created in La Liga