Nico Williams is preparing to join Barcelona, where he will reunite with his junior Lamine Yamal. They shined together in the Spanish national team and won EURO 2024. Since that tournament, Williams and Yamal have been considered the best wingers in the world.
Nico Williams is currently only 22 years old and Lamine Yamal is preparing to turn 18. If they continue to maintain their current form and get along well, the pair will be Barcelona's future for at least the next 5 years. The price of 60 million Euros Barcelona is offering to Athletic Bilbao is too cheap if Nico Williams shows his ability at Camp Nou.
The media has talked a lot about the friendship between Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, but don't forget that in the Barcelona squad, there are still many other stars in the same national team jersey as the Bilbao striker.
After Barcelona's final match of last season, when they beat Bilbao 3-0, reporters caught Nico Williams' intimate moments with a group of Barcelona players. Raphinha and Alejandro Balde had minutes of chatting with Williams when the two teams shook hands and changed shirts after the match. Even compatriot Fermin Lopez ran over and slapped Williams on the neck and laughed happily. After that, the Bilbao star changed his shirt with Ansu Fati.
Last summer, inside the Spanish national team's concentration area in Germany, Fermin Lopez was in the same room as Nico Williams. They are very close to each other, Lopez himself once shared, his closest colleague outside Barcelona is Williams.
Before joining the national team, while playing for the Spanish U21 team, Nico Williams was also very close to Pedri, Dani Olmo, Gavi, Pau Cubarsi and Eric Garcia. These are Williams' friends before Yamal. The striker has only met Lamine Yamal since the EURO U21 tournament, when they all met on the national team during the break in Marbella.
As for Nico Williams' family, they still want to stay in the Basque country. This will be the biggest obstacle if the striker wants to go to Catalan. In fact, Williams' family could have stayed in Basque country, only the 22-year-old star would have come to Barcelona, but that would be quite inconvenient due to the very long distance (san Mames Stadium is more than 600 km from Camp Nou).
Nico Williams' story is quite similar to Cesc Fabregas when the midfielder returned to Barcelona from Arsenal in 2011. Before returning to Camp Nou, during each national team training session, Fabregas was very close to Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Xavi and Andres Iniesta. At that time, every time they met Fabregas in the national team, Pique and Puyol often joked about pulling Fabregas back to Camp Nou. Not only that, when celebrating the 2010 World Cup championship, this central defender pair also wore a Barca shirt to Fabregas.
The most appropriate time for Nico Williams to join Barcelona is right now. Not only meeting the salary level, Barca can be a very easy environment to integrate with Williams having many good friends here.
Barca fans are hoping to soon see the Spanish team's Nico Williams - Lamine Yamal in the Blaugrana shirt. As for Williams, perhaps he hopes it will come faster than any Cule.
