Impressive performances on the Spanish team 's journey to winning EURO 2024 are helping Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Nico Williams receive great attention from the media. Among them, Williams is the name that attracts the most attention when becoming the top transfer target of many big teams before the 2024-2025 season.
At EURO 2024, while Yamal is remembered as the best young player in the tournament, Williams is often rarely mentioned despite also having an impressive performance with 2 goals and 1 assist. In fact, the talent and best qualities of the 22-year-old striker will not be revealed until EURO 2024. Before that, Nico Williams was always one of the most prominent names playing in La Liga for Athletic Bilbao.
Last season, the winger born in 2002 contributed greatly to helping Leones finish 5th in La Liga and win the Spanish King's Cup championship with 8 goals and 16 assists. This parameter is only behind Florian Wirtz (19), Alex Baena, Kevin De Bruyne and Alex Grimaldo (17) in the number of assists in the top 5 European leagues in the 2023-2024 season. This is also the most assists Nico Williams has ever achieved, breaking the previous record of 12 assists in fewer matches.
Not only contributing to the offensive front, the 22-year-old striker also actively participates in defense. According to statistics, Williams had 23 ball wins in the home third - only behind 5 other strikers in La Liga last season. The star born in 2002 also made 31 tackles, ranking 14th among strikers playing in Spain's highest tournament.
Thep Opta Analyst, one of Williams' most outstanding features is his skillful dribbling ability and speedy and direct playing style. According to statistics, considering only players who played at least 15 matches in La Liga last season, Williams had an average of 3.4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, only behind Rayo Vallecano's Bebé with 5.6 times. This skill also helped the 22-year-old star become the Spanish player with the most dribbles (13/37 times) since EURO 1980.
In the 1-0 win over Italy, Nico Williams made Giovanni Di Lorenzo have a hard day, constantly being overtaken by the 22-year-old winger thanks to his skillful dribbling ability and speed. According to statistics, Williams performed 11 dribbles, 5 favorable passes and created 4 clear opportunities.
Williams' pass also indirectly caused Riccardo Calafiori to score an own goal, giving La Roja the victory. Besides his impressive performance at the tournament in Germany, Nico Williams also became the second youngest player in EURO history to score in the final (22 years, 2 days). The previous record belonged to Pietro Anastasi of Italy at EURO 1968 (20 years and 64 days).
With impressive performances at EURO 2024, Nico Williams is a target pursued by many big teams such as Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool or Aston Villa. According to AS, Barca is leading the race to sign the 22-year-old winger, with the desire to create the Nico Williams - Lamine Yamal pair who played very well and effectively at EURO 2024.
This addition promises to help Barca not be completely outmatched by their great rival Real Madrid next season. However, financial problems are making it difficult for the Camp Nou team to deal with this deal.
