5/7/2025–|Last update: 14:03 (Mecca time)
A Spanish report revealed the scenes of the collapse of the transfer deal for the young Athletic player Niko Williams to Barcelona, the champion of the local trio in Spain.
Athletic Bilbao announced yesterday morning in a video clip posted on his official account on the “X” platform, the renewal of Williams (22 years) until the summer of 2035.
What weighs the most is the heart ❤️#AthleticWIN #AthleticClub 🦁 pic.twitter.com/do1QvtqYbP
— Athletic Club (@AthleticClub) July 4, 2025
The Spanish newspaper “Mundo Depotfo” confirmed that, despite Niko Williams himself on Barcelona, he is at the “moment of truth” to avoid the risk that Danny Olmo and Juan Garcia accepted.
She explained that Niko’s position, through which he expressed his desire and his dream to wear the Barcelona shirt changed when the negotiations turned from oral speech to formulating the terms of the contract officially, as his agent began requesting guarantees that allow him to leave to another club with complete freely if the Catalan club did not succeed in registering it with the Spanish League League.
For his part, Barcelona rejected this condition. From the club’s point of view, it will be absurd to pay 62 million euros with approval of a clause that gives the player the right to leave for free if it is not registered.
Then the Catalan club officials saw that Niko would like to play with his friends in Spain from the “Blaugrana” players more than representing the team itself, and his family is not a Barcelona fans, but rather is strongly linked to the Basque team.
Indeed, negotiations reached a dead end, specifically last Tuesday, according to the same newspaper, knowing that Niko wanted to resolve his transfer before July 6, in order to avoid joining any activity with Bilbao.
On that day, Barcelona told Williams that the club would not risk signing a condition that he might deprive him of money and the player together, so that the response comes from the opposite party that the player will give his final decision soon after consulting with his family, which ultimately was to sign a new contract that keeps him with his current team for the next 10 years.
Initially, Barcelona felt disappointed and then realized that Niko is not Danny Olmo or Juan Garcia (who signed Barcelona without conditions), and the club reached a conviction that without him he was crowned the team in the league, cup and Spanish Super.
“There is no room for depression, the summer is still long, and there are other players who really dream of playing in Barcelona and accepting the risk,” the newspaper concluded.
Niko Williams had offered himself to join Barcelona through his agent, Felix Tita, who met with sports director Deco, then moved the club to the conclusion of the deal by paying the value of the penalty clause, before everything collapsed in the end.
It is noteworthy that Niko Williams rose to the first team of Bilbao in 2021, and he fought with the Basque team 167 games in all championships, during which he scored 31 goals and presented his teammates 30 assists, and crowned him with a single title, the King of Spain Cup 2023-2024 season, according to the data of the famous transaction site.