On Friday, Nico Williams made a shock U-turn on his decision to leave Athletic Club by signing a new contract, snubbing Barcelona in the process. He also turned down Bayern Munich, who were also hoping to get a deal done.
Bayern had planned to swoop in and seal a deal for Williams if he decided against joining Barcelona, but it did not work out for them as he chose to remain at Athletic, which whom he is now contracted to 2035.
Bayern Munich react to Nico Williams decision
The ending to the saga took many by surprise, and as confirmed by Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of Bayern, those at the Bundesliga champions were equally as shocked as those at Barcelona. Speaking to BR24, he spoke on the matter.
“When a club extends its own player, it’s nothing unusual. I would have done the same if I was Athletic Club. But we were all surprised that Nico Williams extended his contract. I had close contact with Hansi Flick, who’s currently in Tegernsee on holiday, and they were surprised too because they had more or less an agreement with him.
“I don’t understand what (Nico) wants, but in my opinion Athletic Club are just trying to get more money because next year he will cost more than €60m.”
After the snub, Barcelona have made it clear that they will never again pursue a deal for Williams, having been rebuffed by him in 2024 and 2025. And Hoeneß also confirmed during the interview that Bayern’s stance will be a similar one.
Athletic will not care one bit about Williams’ decision being questioned, as they are the ones that get to enjoy his services for another 10 years. And the chances of a deal being done in the future is further unlikely, given that his release clause is not in the region of €100m.
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