Nico Williams will not stay much longer at Athletic Club. The 22-year-old winger has a contract valid until 2027 and preferred to continue one more season with the Bilbao team to fulfill his dream of playing in a European competition with the 'lions'. However, both the Basque team and his family are clear about what is best for the Pamplona player's career and, in that sense, the FC Barcelona board hopes to prepare everything to conclude the negotiations that, for various reasons, did not come to fruition. port this year.
In principle, the winger's clause will remain the same (around 60 million euros), although the salary aspect may vary from one year to the next, according to the Spanish international's projection. The youngest of the Williams acquired the status of 'crack' after his consecration with Spain in the Euro Cup, a performance that has earned him the interest of several 'greats' on the continent.
Barça's plan to secure the signing of Nico Williams in 2025
However, at Can Barça there is full confidence about Nico's arrival in Catalonia in 2025. The relationship between the Barça board and his agent, Félix Tainta, is good regardless of how negotiations fell apart in the previous transfer window. The culés did not manage to release enough 'Fair Play' to pay off the operation in July and the forward preferred to stay in Bilbao for one more season, although Barça could have attacked his transfer in the final stretch of the summer market.
In a talk with the 'SER' network, Tainta admitted that the winger was autonomous in deciding his immediate future, thereby confirming his desire to continue at Athletic. For now, the '10' has had a somewhat weak start to the season with Ernesto Valverde's men (1 goal and 1 assist in 9 games), also leaving some doubts about his physical condition after an exhausting summer. Meanwhile, Barça is waiting for the ideal moment to resume negotiations for the Basque (in the first months of 2025), already with a much more positive sporting and financial outlook.
The culés have important amounts to enter derived from the new contract with Nike and other pending 'levers'; operations that will allow the club to return to the 1/1 rule and adjust its budget to sign normally in 2025. Furthermore, if the season ends with a positive balance in terms of titles, the investment will be much more auspicious to reinforce a squad that Hansi Flick has been in charge of strengthening week after week.