4/7/2025–|Last update: 16:51 (Mecca time)
The Spanish international wing, Niko Williams, who was a strong candidate to move to Barcelona, will remain in the ranks of his team, Athletic Bilbao, after the Basque club announced the renewal of the international player’s contract until June 30, 2035.
“The Athletic Bilbao and Niko Williams club reached an agreement to renew the player’s contract for 8 years, and his contract would expire in 2027,” a statement to Bilbao said on its official website.
The statement added, “The value of the criminal item in its contract will increase by 50 percent compared to the previous value,” the statement added.
“When it comes to making decisions, the most important thing for me is to listen to the heart. I am where I want to be, this is my home, Bilbao Athletic,” Bilbao’s official website quoted Williams, 22, as saying in a video.
In recent days, reports indicated that Barcelona is close to resolving Williams’s transfer to its ranks, but the Catalan club, which has suffered a financial crisis in recent years and found it difficult to register his new players, was unable to complete the deal.
The president of the Spanish League, Javier Thibbas, warned Barcelona on Tuesday, that the team could not officially register Williams in its records, because he did not respect the financial laws that demand a balance in spending and incomes, and he said in this regard to Cuban Radio last Tuesday, “Barcelona cannot register Niko Williams, because he does not respect the rule 1.1 that demands a balance between spending and incomes.”
The Catalan team had found it difficult to score its international striker Danny Olmo and defender Pu Victor early last season, before players were allowed to play temporarily, and then this becomes formal at the beginning of this year.
Barcelona’s response
And the Catalan “Rak 1” radio quoted sources in Barca, that the latter will never negotiate Niko Williams and that he closed the page and the relationship ended irreversibly and will not think in the future to contract him.
Although the agreement on personal terms with the player was completed, but Niko wanted guarantees that his registration will take place, and what will be the penal item in the contract if things are complicated and the Catalan team did not succeed in registering the player on his statements.
“Rak 1” revealed that Barcelona did not know about the renewal of Niko Williams and the Athletic Bilbao statement except from social media.
Dani Olmo Lo Tient Claro: “💙❤️” pic.twitter.com/qxkfljn2qw
– Pol Alonso 🎙 (@polycio8) July 4, 2025
After the deal failed, it was the remarkable image of Danny Olmo, the Barcelona player, on his Instagram account and attached it to two hearts of blue and red, and understood that Olmo agreed to the risk of not registering it and before Barcelona’s offer and left Leipzig even though there is a threat to Barca’s lack of success in his statements, and this is what Nico Williams did not do.