Athletic does not give up despite the Barça-Nico pact

At Athletic Club they know that FC Barcelona and Nico Williams want to join forces as soon as possible. However, the San Mamés team will not make things easy for their biggest star to leave for a direct rival.

Although everything seems to indicate that the 'Lions' have already resigned themselves to Nico's departure, the club is aware that the quality of the 22-year-old player allows them to get the most out of him, whether from a sporting or monetary point of view.

Nico Williams, in a match with Athletic Club

In this sense, the Pamplona-born forward was already linked with Barcelona last summer market. In the end, the operation did not progress due to the Catalan team's financial 'fair play' problems at that time, in addition to the attraction for the attacker to play a hypothetical UEFA Europa League final in San Mamés.

Despite this, Williams is now willing to do whatever it takes to land in the Ciudad Condal and wear the 'azulgrana' colors.

Athletic Club will not make it easy

For the Basque team it is not pleasant that a LaLiga giant like Barça wants to take away their best player. Thus, according to the latest rumors, the 'Lions' board would be surprised by the player's constant desire to play for Barcelona.

Also, the relations between the directors of both teams are not at their best. A clear example of this was the last match of the domestic competition in the 2024/25 season, where apparently the president of Athletic Club, Jon Uriarte, did not congratulate the 'culé' president for winning the league title.

In the 'azulgrana' entity they know perfectly well that to get Nico out of the 'rojiblanco' team they will have to pay the player's termination clause, which amounts to 62 million euros (58 M€ plus CPI).

Similarly, there is talk that Barcelona would try to agree with Athletic Club a payment to be made in installments, and thus reach a friendly agreement. Now, the Bilbao team would not be willing to accept the operation in this way.

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Barça's steps to register Joan García and Nico

Barça and Nico have already agreed on the terms of their contract

According to information shared by Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona and Nico have already agreed on a contract for six seasons, i.e. until 2031. In turn, the player's salary would be around seven or eight million euros net per year.

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Barça and Nico Williams have a deal: Athletic left

At this point, the operation related to Nico Williams has accelerated in recent days, after his agent, Félix Tainta, met with Barça's sporting director, Deco, who apparently preferred the Colombian Luis Díaz, but the economic demands of Liverpool tipped the balance in favor of the Pamplona native.

Apparently, one of the biggest motivations of 'La Roja's '17' to change teams would be (apart from his desire to play for Barcelona) the search for titles, since while Barça won LaLiga EA Sports, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup, Athletic Club closed the season without any title.