Barcelona stand accused of lying in the media about their pursuit of Nico Williams earlier this season, with older brother Iñaki claiming the Catalans caused “a lot of damage”.
A very public pursuit had already been played out in the wake of Euro 2024, with Nico Williams opting to stay with Athletic Club. However, it was widely reported last month that the Spain international and Barcelona had reached a verbal agreement over personal terms.
The saga dragged on without conclusion, amid claims that Williams was waiting for assurances that he could be registered, having witnessed the embarrassing Dani Olmo episode last season.
But things then seemed to collapse, with Williams signing a new 10-year contract with Athletic Club instead. Barcelona went on to sign Marcus Rashford on loan, with president Joan Laporta going on to claim that it was his preferred deal anyway, and that Williams was bottom of his list.
Laporta had additionally publicly declared that Nico’s agent approached Barça first, then alleging that there was “a lot of difference in the direction” in terms of payment terms, agent commission and other variables, which supposedly led to things falling apart and diverting blame from his club.
Iñaki Williams now says a lot of what has been said in public and fed to the media isn’t true, even claiming the decision to stay in Bilbao was “more or less” already made before the Barça saga.
“We all know how the world of football works,” the elder Williams told reporters during Athletic Club’s pre-season.
“[Barcelona] wanted to apply pressure on Athleticzales, on my brother. They put together a media campaign that they thought would work. I think, us, Athletic as a club, when we want a player, we do it under the radar.”
“It’s done a lot of damage,” Williams continued. “It’s sullied a lot of things. Many of the things that they said, that were leaked to the media or on social media, were lies. I’ll be honest, my brother had more or less taken the decision [to stay], but we still had to put together and redact a contract that was very large. To commit until 2035. You couldn’t just announce it from one day to the next.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Barcelona Accused of ‘Lies’ Over Nico Willams Pursuit.