FC Barcelona is fighting to achieve its goals in the 2024/25 season without Nico Williams. Sporting director Deco is confronted with the failure to sign the winger from Athletic Club and justifies this with other priorities.
FC Barcelona preferred player type like Dani Olmo according to Deco
In the end, a Spanish European champion did indeed arrive – but not Nico Williams. Quite a few FC Barcelona fans had asked for the winger from Bilbao to be signed, but he ultimately decided to stay at Athletic Club. Instead, the Catalans signed Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig, paying a fixed transfer fee of 55 million euros.
In an interview with the club’s own streaming platform Barça One, sporting director Deco has now commented on the non-transfer of Williams – and justified this by saying that the team already had enough players on the wings, so they wanted to bring in a player like Olmo. He generally plays centrally, but can also be used flexibly and can play on the left.
“We have Raphinha, Ferran, the returning Ansu, Lamine, players like Fermín, Dani Olmo. We were always clear that if we were to sign a player, he had to be of a high standard. In the end, signing Dani gave us more options,” said Deco, who also said of the Williams case: “It’s not that we didn’t talk, but ultimately we had priorities that were decisive in not signing a winger.”
Nico Williams: “It was always clear to me that I wanted to be at Athletic”
The 22-year-old himself had already spoken about his decision when the summer transfer market closed at the end of August. Williams told the Spanish branch of the streaming service DAZN: “One of the reasons I wanted to stay was to play with Athletic in Europe. It’s always good when big clubs have your name on their list. That means you’re doing well. But it was always clear to me that I wanted to be here at Athletic. I had a lot of clubs to choose from, but my heart belongs to Athletic.”
His contract with the Europa League participant runs until June 30, 2027. “I am very happy in Bilbao and only God knows what will happen in the future,” he added. In any case, the Barça door does not seem to be closed once and for all.
