Athletic Club confident Nico Williams will stay despite Barcelona’s continued efforts

The Nico Williams transfer saga still has no end in sight as FC Barcelona continue to pursue the Athletic Club and Spain winger to reinforce their left flank.

A few days ago, it appeared like the 22-year-old would not be leaving the Basque outfit and that Barcelona would be unable to sign him this summer.

However, the Blaugrana refuse to give up and believe that there is a strong chance that the UEFA Euro 2024 winner will say ‘yes’ to the club despite having resumed training with Athletic.

In fact, Barcelona president Joan Laporta himself is planning to lead negotiations in the days to come so as to get the deal across the line.

Athletic Club confident Nico will not leave

Despite Barcelona’s reluctance to give up so easily, SPORT reports that Athletic Club are confident and optimistic that Nico Williams will stay at the club for one more season.

Having returned to training earlier this week, the 22-year-old Spanish international joined the rest of the squad under the command of manager Ernesto Valverde earlier today.

The idea is for Nico to be fit and firing to play in Athletic Club’s La Liga opener against Getafe on August 15, with the Basque outfit believing that the winger will stay at the club beyond the summer window.

For a long while, it appeared likely that Nico would make the switch but continued pressure from his family and Athletic Club have made him second-guess his decision, the report states.

The Basque club are appealing to him with the idea of him helping Valverde & co. to the finals of the UEFA Europa League this season, which will be played at San Mames.

In fact, Athletic Club are not even ruling out the possibility of offering the young winger a new contract if he stays, even though they tied him down to a new deal until 2027 only last year.

However, Barcelona, now back to the 1:1 rule, remain confident that there is still time and that they can land their target before the window closes. Only time will tell how the saga continues in the days to come.