The story of Nico Williams’ potential move to Barcelona is taking on soap opera overtones with just a few weeks to go until the close of the transfer window. On Sunday afternoon, ‘Sport’ reported that club sources claimed that the Athletic player had given the go-ahead to move to the Catalan giants.
Not even a month has passed since the European Championship final and Barcelona’s potential signing of Nico Williams has already taken several twists and turns. The most recent comes on Sunday afternoon when the Spanish newspaper ‘Sport’ reported that Barcelona had received the Spaniard’s approval to leave Athletic to join Hansi Flick’s side.
His arrival in the squad is estimated to be finalised by next week. How to pay his 62 million euro buyout clause needs to be worked out. In addition, a salary in line with the status of the winger, who has been confirmed as a star this summer, has to be agreed.
Just a few days ago, he appeared in a video shared by the club that has seen him grow to imply that he was going to stay. Ernesto Valverde did not count on him for the friendly match against Stuttgart that was held in Germany, although everything pointed to the fact that this was because he had to work on his fitness after his holidays and it did not make sense for him to travel to German soil again.
It is striking that Barcelona, in an unstable financial situation, have managed to challenge themselves with this deal when they have just completed the signing of Dani Olmo for around 50 million euros from Leipzig.