Nico Williams appears to be continuing at Athletic Club for one more season, despite having been strongly linked with a move away throughout the summer. Barcelona were clear favourites, but earlier this month, their interest evaporated when the 22-year-old returned to Bilbao for the start of the season.
Survey: Federico Chiesa to Barça – yes or no? 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/l3hzMunmgT
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 20, 2024
Barcelona were prepared to pay Williams’ release clause, worth €58m, in order to get the deal done. However, they backed down from this stance after securing the signing of Dani Olmo, whom they brought in whilst Williams was considering his options.
Barcelona may have said that they could afford Williams’ release clause, but Athletic president Jon Uriarte disagreed with this. As per El Correo (via Sport), he told La Liga chief Javier Tebas that the Catalans were not going to comply with the league’s economic controls if the Euro 2024 was signed, and thus, they claim that the signing would be illegal. This would have led to legal action being brought if the deal went through.
It’s hard to say whether these threats were the reason that Barcelona ended their interest in Williams. Athletic Club won’t care much now, as it appears certainly that Williams will remain at San Mames until at least 2025.
