This summer we are profiling 50 exciting players under the age of 25 — who they are, how they play, and why they could be attracting interest this transfer window.
We have already taken a close look at a striker on Manchester United’s radar, Gen-Z’s answer toSergio Busquetsand theFranceforward who has gone from zero to €100million in the space of a year.You can find all our profiles so far here.
Next is Nico Williams, the ambitious dribbler whose reputation has skyrocketed since making his debut in 2021.
“I’m really proud of what Nico is achieving at just 20 years old,” Athletic Bilbao forward Inaki Williams told The Athletic last autumn. “He is progressing as a player and as a person, how he is maturing. Nico’s ceiling is very high and he is only just beginning.”
Inaki’s pride in his younger brother’s progress was clear, with the conversation coming a few weeks after they both scored in a 3-2 home win over Rayo Vallecano last September. That was the first time since 1965 that two siblings had scored for the Basque club in a game in La Liga.
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A lot has happened since Nico made his league debut just over two years ago. Last season, he scored nine goals and provided six assists in 43 games in all competitions. He also made his senior Spain debut and played in all four of their matches at the World Cup.
Nico is a different player to his 28-year-old brother; not quite as tall and strong but better in tight spaces and at beating opponents one-on-one.
As Inaki says, it is too early yet to know his ceiling and his immediate future is also difficult to predict.
He now has a year left on his contract and talks over an extension have not progressed in recent months. The Williams family have strong ties to Bilbao as a city and their connection to Athletic Club is tight, too. However, Nico and those around him are also aware that his talent and his potential open up other, perhaps greater, opportunities elsewhere, even though moving on from the San Mames stadium would be difficult — both for him and for those he leaves behind.
Given his age, there is no rush to jump too far ahead, but Nico Williams has come a long way in a very short time. And a decision over his next steps is looming.
Nico Williams can play on either wing, but as a right-footer, he prefers the right and often stays close to the touchline to use the width of the pitch rather than coming inside onto his left.
While his big brother Inaki generally relies on pace and power to beat his man, Nico has more technical gifts and trickery on the ball. He likes nothing better than to take possession and run at his marker.
In 2022-23, he attempted 6.8 take-ons per game, 13th-most of any player in Europe’s big five domestic leagues (La Liga, Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1) with over 900 minutes of game time. Only three players aged 21 or under averaged more on a per-game basis, while his season tally of 200 take-ons was only beaten by Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior.
Williams also averaged 2.2 carries into the opposition penalty area per game last season, an impressive rate that paints the picture of a positive dribbler. His take-on map below demonstrates just how relentless he is with the ball at his feet, on both sides of the pitch.
A consequence of so many attempted dribbles is that Williams will lose the ball sometimes. His take-on success rate is relatively low at 41.5 per cent, suggesting he can be a little ambitious in possession. Not all modern coaches would enjoy taking such risks, but Athletic’s Ernesto Valverde has been keen to build his confidence and encourage him to keep trying, even when it is not always coming off. “Nico has to improve and learn some things, but he will do that because he is a sensible kid,” the former Barcelona boss said last season.
The ‘waffle’ graphic below shows why Williams’ runs on the ball are so useful for his team.
A relatively high proportion (17 per cent) of his shot-creating actions for team-mates come from his dribbles. Almost three-quarters of the opportunities he creates for others still come from open play passes (63 per cent) or set-piece deliveries (11 per cent), showing his ability to put team-mates into position for a crack at goal.
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The chances-created chart below illustrates a big part of his game — racing into the box and cutting the ball back towards a team-mate arriving near the penalty spot. Although, he does also create opportunities from wider areas, too, with deep crosses coming into the danger area from both sides of the pitch.
A closer look at the numbers also shows that Williams might have deserved more end-product from his actions.
His 5.9 crosses per game ranked him sixth in La Liga last term, while his expected assists of 6.4 for the season ranked seventh in Spain’s top flight. That just four of the 41 chances he created ended up in goals tells us what all Athletic fans know already — that their team lacks a natural finisher at centre-forward.
Smarterscout’s pizza charts give a series of ratings from zero and 99 showing either how often a player performs a given stylistic action or how effective they are at it compared with others playing in their position at clubs around Europe.
This again underlines how often Williams takes on his defender (96 in carry and dribble volume) and also how high-risk his dribbling can be (38 in ball retention ability). He also scores well in the red off-the-ball metrics — where both his defending intensity (79) and defending impact (70) stand out. This fits well at Athletic’s San Mames ground — where work rate and commitment are non-negotiables.
Such high energy and high pressing are highly rated by former Spain head coach Luis Enrique, who also liked Williams’ game-breaking potential. In just his second cap in last September’s Nations League game away in Portugal, a direct run down the wing and cross set up a simple finish for Alvaro Morata’s late winner.
That convinced Luis Enrique to bring Williams to last year’s World Cup, where Spain were always going to face massed deep defences. The coach of La Roja wanted direct wide players to stretch opponents and open up spaces elsewhere.
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“Nico is still in a phase of learning and improvement, but he is a very interesting player for us, with his marvellous speed to break teams open,” Enrique said. Williams featured in all four games in Qatar, but there was ultimately disappointment for both player and team as they were eliminated on penalties against Morocco in the last 16.
Current Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has kept Williams in his squads and he already has eight senior caps before his 21st birthday. However, a heel injury linked to the huge amount of games he has played over the past year — 43 games in all competitions for Athletic, the joint most of any player in the squad — forced a withdrawal from June’s Nations League finals.
Inaki Williams has told The Athletic about the challenges he and his family have faced, with his parents having moved to Bilbao from Ghana just before he was born. Nico was born after the family had relocated to Pamplona and when he was smaller their father worked in England for some years, so Inaki often looked after his younger brother.
“For me, he is an example, a father, a brother, a friend — everything,” Nico has said of Inaki. “He helped my parents and me to be able to eat, to go to school, to have clothes to wear.”
This relationship continued after Nico followed Inaki into Athletic’s Lezama youth system and has remained even after becoming team-mates in the senior side. Athletic have been keen to show the importance of the family’s contribution to the Basque club. Their mother, Maria Arthuer, was named ‘June ambassador’ for its 125th-anniversary celebrations, with an event held to show the social and cultural value of migration over the club’s history.
— Athletic Club (@Athletic_en) June 2, 2023🏅 Maria Arthuer, mother of Iñaki and Nico Williams, named 125th anniversary ambassador for June.
In recognition of the invaluable contribution the migrant community in The Basque Country has made to Athletic Club since its foundation in 1898. #Athletic125 #AthleticClub 🦁
The two brothers remain super close. Nico still lives in Bilbao with his parents, with Inaki living almost just next door. Although he is now an established La Liga player and Spain international, Nico can still walk the streets of Bilbao and lead a relatively normal life with his friends. Within the squad, besides his brother, his closest friends are fellow youngsters Oihan Sancet and Adu Ares.
Some setbacks were inevitable and last April’s Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Osasuna was a low point. After Inaki scored to make it 1-1 on aggregate, Nico had two golden chances to put his team through to the final but missed both. He was watching from the bench when Osasuna’s substitute Pablo Ibanez put his team into the final instead.
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That brought some heavy criticism from disappointed Rojiblanco fans and pundits, along with unacceptable abuse on social media. Valverde took him out of the XI for the following weekend’s La Liga trip to Espanyol. With the game at 1-1, he came on and, within six minutes, he had dribbled past two defenders and curled a shot to the far corner.
“The fans chanted my name and I felt their support,” Williams said after that game. “I was a bit down — I wouldn’t like anybody to have to go through that. I wanted to make the final as much as anybody.”
That also came amid uncertainty over Williams’ long-term future, especially as his contract ends in June 2024. Inaki is under contract at the San Mames until 2028 having previously turned down interest from the Premier League. Close friend Sancet has recently agreed a new deal all the way to 2032.
Talks over extending Nico’s contract far into the future were parked until the end of the season and will now take place in the coming weeks. There was interest in January from Aston Villa — his performances and potential will not have gone unnoticed by other Premier League clubs — and Real Madrid have also been aware of his situation.
“I have very strong feelings for Athletic and for me this club is everything,” Williams said a few weeks ago. “In any case, I’ve only really been playing regularly in the first team for one season. I still do not know what I want to do with my life.”
(Top image design: Sam Richardson. Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
