Nico lives the Williams dream in Spain’s record Euros triumph

All through the tournament, and especially in the lead up to the final, it was Spain’s sprouting right-winger – recently turned 17 – Lamine Yamal who everyone was talking about. The face of this young team. Come the big final on Sunday, another equally light-footed Spanish winger stepped up – Nico Williams, who provided the ideal finish to Yamal’s through ball to put the eventual champions 1-0 up.

Yamal, who set it up to become the youngest player to win the Euros, was the player of the final, in which Spain beat England 2-1 thanks to a winner from Mikel Oyarzabal. That Williams ended up being outshined, even on the greatest night of his young career, won’t be a feeling alien to him.

At his club, Athletic Bilbao, Nico has been the second-most famous Nico. His elder brother Inaki is a club legend, who played 236 matches in a row for the first team. A feat unheard of in modern day football, a La Liga record spread across six seasons.

Nico, however, credits Inaki – nine years elder to him – for his growth as a player and an individual. “My brother is protective of me, he wants to help me, and because of that I am the person that I am today,” Nico had told AFP during the World Cup in Qatar a couple years ago. A World Cup in which he donned the colors of Spain – the country where they now live – while Inaki represented Ghana – the country their parents fled.

🔝 performance
🔝 tournament

Nico Williams is the real deal 👏@Vivo_GLOBAL | #EUROPOTM pic.twitter.com/lPu38RWoX0

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 14, 2024

Theirs is a story of parental sacrifice and one of football’s greatest triumphs. Felix Williams and his partner María Arthuer had traveled some 4,900kms of the scorching Sahara desert – barefoot for the most part – all the way to Melilla, an autonomous city of Spain, in want of a better future. Maria, who was pregnant with Inaki during the journey but did not know, only revealed the same to her elder son when he turned 20.

Inaki opened about it in a soul stirring chat with The Guardian a few years ago. “They did part (of the journey) in a truck, one of those with the open back, 40 people packed in, then walked for days. People fell, left along the way, people they buried. It’s dangerous, there are thieves waiting, rapes, suffering. Some are tricked into it. Traffickers get paid and then halfway say, ‘The journey ends here.’ Chuck you out, leave you with nothing, no water, no food. Kids, old people, women. People do not knowing what’s ahead, if they’ll make it.”

Having processed the extreme lengths to which his parents had gone for a career he made in football, it was Inaki who took it upon himself to let his younger brother realize the same.

During a family trip back to Ghana, where their grandparents still live, Inaki pointed out a group of younger boys working out in the fields to Nico. “F**k Nico, if it wasn’t for our parents, who crossed the desert, we could’ve been there.”

Nico and Inaki playing for Athletic Bilbao. (Reuters)

By his own admission, the words from his brother triggered a deep self introspection from Nico. The profound impact also came from the stature Inaki holds in his younger brother’s heart.

It’s a relationship the city of Bilbao, and much of the Basque country, loves to romanticize. Back when Inaki was little and Nico was littler, their father had moved near Chelsea, England to work in a shopping centre, clearing tables and as a security guard. Their mother worked as many as three jobs, during the patches she could find work. It was at this time that Inaki took over the role of a father to his baby brother. He would wake him up for school, make his breakfast, tie his shoes, drop him off, bring him lunch, pick him back, and take him to play – as he started picking interest in his brother’s favorite pastime.

Nico started catching up quickly with his brother. Inaki signed for Bilbao in 2012, at the age of 18. Nico, a year later, when he was 11. Playing for Spain was Inaki’s big dream. But a 2016 friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina was his only start for the national team. This, despite his revered streak of games at a top-tier Spanish club. Eventually, he switched to playing for Ghana. Nico on the other hand, transitioned from Spanish U18s to U20s to the senior team across a smooth three-year timeline.

But even as Inaki saw his baby brother live his dream, the bromance remained strong as ever, as did the fatherly wisdom.

“He’s very happy for me, very proud. He told me that I have to work and keep my feet on the ground,” Nico told Marca of his maiden call-up in Spain’s national team.
Inaki’s response to Nico’s performance in Sunday’s final on his social media – after his initial long-spelled ‘Vamos’ with 15-heart emojis – was typical of his fatherly persona for Williams Jr. “Another day at the office,” he wrote. In Spanish, of course.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.