Barcelona look set to miss out Athletic Club forward Nico Williams next summer, with the Basque side openly confident that he will sign a new contract at San Mames.
Williams is one of Spain’s brightest young talents, following in the footsteps of older brother Inaki through the youth setup in Bilbao. The 21-year-old is already in his third season as a first-team player and has played 10 times for Spain at senior international level.
His talent has alerted other teams to the possibility of signing him – as it stands, Williams is due to be out of contract with Athletic at the end of this season. Barcelona are among those that have been linked, while 90min revealed in June that an ambitious Aston Villa were also interested around the same time as they trying to sign centre-back Pau Torres from Villarreal.
But club officials in Bilbao were expectant then that a new contract was close to being agreed, with the offer of a two-year contract on the table. Nearly three months on, confidence hasn't changed.
"Both [Williams] and his family are very happy in Bilbao and in Athletic. We are working on both sides so that he can stay for many years," Athletic president Jon Uriarte said, via SPORT.
Barca have had to carefully manage their finances in recent years, which has had a knock-on effect on their transfer policy – of this summer's new arrivals, only Oriol Romeu commanded a fee.
Although seemingly unlikely to be the case, should Williams not sign a new contract before next summer then he would be available without a transfer fee. But this penny pinching will eventually allow Barca to be in a position where they can spend more freely on players again.
As 90min revealed last week, the club are already preparing themselves to be in the market for Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland in 2025 when a release clause in his contract becomes active. The fixed price to sign the Norwegian would be €175m (£150m).
It could also be good timing for Barca, given that Robert Lewandowski’s contract would have just one year to run by then. The Pole would be about to turn 37 too.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Athletic Club confident Barcelona target will stay.