On Friday, Nico Williams made a shock U-turn on his determination to depart Athletic Membership by signing a brand new contract, snubbing Barcelona within the course of. He additionally turned down Bayern Munich, who had been additionally hoping to get a deal performed.
Bayern had deliberate to swoop in and seal a deal for Williams if he determined in opposition to becoming a member of Barcelona, but it surely didn’t work out for them as he selected to stay at Athletic, which whom he’s now contracted to 2035.
Bayern Munich react to Nico Williams determination
The ending to the saga took many unexpectedly, and as confirmed by Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of Bayern, these on the Bundesliga champions had been equally as shocked as these at Barcelona. Chatting with BR24, he spoke on the matter.
“When a membership extends its personal participant, it’s nothing uncommon. I might have performed the identical if I used to be Athletic Membership. However we had been all stunned that Nico Williams prolonged his contract. I had shut contact with Hansi Flick, who’s at present in Tegernsee on vacation, and so they had been stunned too as a result of that they had roughly an settlement with him.
“I don’t perceive what (Nico) desires, however for my part Athletic Membership are simply making an attempt to get more cash as a result of subsequent yr he’ll value greater than €60m.”
After the snub, Barcelona have made it clear that they may by no means once more pursue a deal for Williams, having been rebuffed by him in 2024 and 2025. And Hoeneß additionally confirmed throughout the interview that Bayern’s stance shall be the same one.
Athletic won’t care one bit about Williams’ determination being questioned, as they’re those that get to get pleasure from his companies for an additional 10 years. And the probabilities of a deal being performed sooner or later is additional unlikely, provided that his launch clause shouldn’t be within the area of €100m.