Athletic Club winger Nico Williams’ agent has revealed the star simply did not want to leave his club this summer.
With a release clause of over €50m in his contract, Williams looked like he could be one of the biggest bargains of the summer as Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea all pursued his signature, but the 22-year-old ultimately rejected all offers in favour of remaining with Athletic.
Speaking to SER Chain Williams’ agent admitted it had been a stressful transfer window but praised the winger for staying true to himself.
“The lad has had an incredible, spectacular year, and for me he has confirmed it by being, in my opinion, the best player at Euro 2024,” said agent Félix Tainta. “We have had a lot of movement, a lot of travelling… We are happy, but everything is compressed into a very short time and we are reaching the end of the market stressed.”
“The boy has decided to stay for another year. We are here to work, support him in all his decisions and advise him. He wanted to stay. It is proof that when a player wants to stay at a club he stays and when he wants to leave he leaves. It is not the agent who puts a gun to his head and says ‘go away, I want you to come where I want you’.
“The player and the family have total freedom. It’s very easy to attack the agent, we’re always the ones who take all the hits. We are the cancer of football, the leprosy of football, but then there are many sporting directors who don’t have a club and become agents. We’ve been struggling with that for a long time. Each player decides where he wants to be.”
His Spain teammate Lamine Yamal, a close friend of Williams, has openly admitted his desire to link up with the winger at club level and recently reaffirmed his desire to see the Athletic star join him at Barcelona.
in -UEFA Nations league / Soccrates Images/GettyImages
“I don’t know (whether Williams will sign for Barcelona next year),” Yamal said. to Antenna 3. “I would like to play with him every week, I hope I can do that, but now he is at Athletic.”
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