Latest news with #NicoWilliams
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Nico Williams rejects Barcelona to sign contract renewal with Athletic Club
Barcelona have missed out on Athletic Club winger Nico Williams, who has decided to turn down a move to the Catalan capital for the second summer in a row. The Basque winger has committed his future to Athletic Club with a new long-term deal. Williams was being pursued by Barcelona, who were willing to pay his €58m release clause this summer. That was after Williams communicated to the Blaugrana that he was willing to make the move, but Barcelona could not provide guarantees that he would be registered. Image via Sebastian Widmann – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images New contract with Athletic Club As per multiple reports, Williams will commit his future to Athletic Club for the next decade, signing a deal until 2035. It had been rumoured that Athletic were attempting to renew his deal, but with Bayern Munich and Barcelona both pursuing him, many expected the 22-year-old to make a move this summer. Mural announcement The new Athletic contract was announced by the club on social media, in front of a mural of him and his brother Inaki Williams, the new captain of the side as of this summer. The mural had been defaced by angry Athletic fans, before the club commissioned the artist to restore it. A restoration that looks especially good now for Athleticzales. The video was accompanied by these words from Williams. 'When it comes to making decisions, for me what weighs heaviest is my heart. I'm where I want to be, with my family. This is my home. Aupa Athletic!' Athletic Club retain their star man Williams has not only signed a new deal with a wage rise, but has also significantly increased his release clause. It will be over around €87m, and while previously his €58m release clause was seen as relatively affordable for Europe's top clubs, the Spain international now enters a different realm in terms of price. It is another strong show of Athletic's pull for their players, who feel a connection that goes far beyond the usual relationship between footballers and their employers. It looks as if San Mames can enjoy the Williams brothers for some time yet, and Nico will have the chance to compete in the Champions League for the first time next season. The good times keep on coming in Bilbao.
New York Times
18 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Barcelona and Marcus Rashford: How we got here and why it makes sense
When the summer began, Barcelona knew they had to strengthen in attack. At that point, Athletic Club winger Nico Williams was not being considered, after a failed prospective move for him last year. Barca assumed their chance had passed. In sporting director Deco's mind, Liverpool's Luis Diaz and Marcus Rashford of Manchester United were the two candidates. Deco preferred Diaz, but financially, that deal was difficult to pull off. Then Williams offered himself to the club, actively showing interest in playing for Barcelona, and plans changed. Deco reopened the club's doors to the Spain international, who turned 23 this month. However, when they were convinced that Williams' signing was a matter of days away, on July 4, a video appeared on Athletic's social media confirming three things: he was staying in Bilbao, he was renewing his contract there for another 10 years and, once again, he had stood up Barcelona. With that, the club closed the door definitively on the transfer and went back to considering other options. Diaz remained Deco's first choice — the Colombia winger was the player he liked the most. But Spanish champions Barca cannot yet employ La Liga's 1:1 rule — whereby they can spend a euro for every euro they raise — although club sources, speaking anonymously to protect their roles, claim they are very close to achieving it. Financial constraints mean Barcelona have to work with what they can do rather than what they want to do. And there was one player who ticked all the boxes in those circumstances: Rashford. The 27-year-old England international has signed for the club on a season-long loan with the idea of playing on the left wing, although he can operate in any position up front. His signing was necessary for several reasons. One was that the coaching staff wanted more options in attack. Last season, the starting front line of Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha proved very fruitful for the team. Barca were the highest-scoring team in La Liga, with 102 goals. Real Madrid were a distant second with 78. Lewandowski scored 27 and was just four short of equalling Spain's top scorer, Kylian Mbappe of Madrid. Raphinha got 18 and Yamal nine. Advertisement That first-choice forward line was clear and unshakeable, but the problem came when injuries and late season fatigue set in. Head coach Hansi Flick and his assistants felt they needed greater depth. They did not have enough confidence in Ansu Fati, who left on loan to Monaco a few weeks ago, or last summer's signing Pau Victor, and when the final stretch of 2024-25 arrived and Lewandowski was out for 17 days with a hamstring injury, Raphinha, Yamal and Ferran Torres were the only players relied on. Flick also preferred to use Raphinha in a central role and, although the Brazilian began as a left-winger, he ended up playing more in the middle than out wide. To take advantage of this profile, and bearing in mind that Torres is seen as a centre-forward to compete with Lewandowski, who turns 37 next month, allowing the Pole to be rested for some matches, Flick wanted to bring in a winger with more pace on the left. In fact, when it looked like Williams was going to sign, the way voices at Barca envisaged him fitting into their system was to drop Raphinha back to play almost as an attacking midfielder. With Rashford arriving instead, Flick has the option of doing that or allowing him to miss the occasional game. They wanted someone to fill that need, and after interest in and moves for Diaz and Williams came to nothing, Rashford emerged as the most feasible option. Deco tried to buy Diaz, but it was not a viable option, no matter how much they wanted him. Barcelona just could not afford him — he had a high salary and other financial aspects affecting registrations complicated the operation. The club are trying to save wherever they can to get back to a normal situation in terms of signing players this summer. Diaz and Williams would have been permanent signings and not loans, with the amortisation of their transfer fees (the transfer fee divided by the years of a player's contract) included in La Liga's salary cap. This is not the case with Rashford, who arrives without the need for a fee — although his registration is not guaranteed. The club are still operating above their league-imposed salary limit, meaning they cannot register any of their new signings (Rashford, goalkeepers Joan Garcia and Wojciech Szczesny and the young winger Roony Bardghji) as things stand. They must make room in their wage budget by moving out high-earning players or finding significant new revenue streams. Even so, Rashford was financially viable, much cheaper than Barca's other targets, could play as a winger, and Flick liked him. Another key point was the player's desire for the move. He was desperate to play for Barcelona and, after learning of Williams' decision, made this known to the club. He was coming from a difficult personal situation at United, where he had been left without a shirt number for the coming season in a clear invitation to leave, and was enthused by the idea of becoming a Barca player. Rashford wanted to come despite knowing he may have to wait until the last minute of the summer window to actually be registered, as happened to Victor and Dani Olmo when they were signed this time a year ago. This, combined with their experiences with Williams and the contract clauses he requested to cover him in the event that he could not be registered after signing, added points in the Englishman's favour. Rashford is not the player Barcelona would have gone for under normal circumstances, but he is one who more or less fits the bill. He was not their first choice, but he suits the club's current financial situation.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Can Barca register Rashford? Plus: Parma eye Reyna, Premier League ticket price table
The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic's daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox. Hello! Barcelona are signing Marcus Rashford. Even though they might not be able to field him. Capeesh? On the way: 📝 Barca's Rashford puzzle 🇺🇸 Italian team move for Reyna 💰 Wrexham's third big-money deal 🇯🇵 Japanese pinball The way they conduct transfers at Barcelona is, to put it politely, a little back to front. They explore potential signings, they bring negotiations to a conclusion — and then they worry about whether those signings are even permitted in the first place. It's how it went with Dani Olmo last summer: Barca paying £50million ($62m) for him without any guarantee that La Liga would register the midfielder for the season that followed. In the end, it took government intervention to allow Olmo to play from start to finish. It's how it would have gone a few weeks back, too, had Nico Williams not turned down the Catalans. Advertisement Barca, see, are forever either on the verge of exceeding La Liga's salary cap, or exceeding it full stop. Williams, who stunned them by choosing an enhanced contract with Athletic Club over a transfer to Camp Nou, was sharp enough to realise this. His camp demanded an exit clause in the event that Barca failed to register him with La Liga. Barca refused, causing the transaction to collapse. And so, they and we move onto Marcus Rashford, the latest Barca deal that comes with the caveat of nobody quite knowing if the club can afford him. The move is happening, technically speaking, because the Manchester United forward is in Spain. Terms for a season-long loan are in place and Rashford, as Dermot Corrigan outlines, is greasing the wheels by making a big financial concession: accepting what equates to a 25 per cent pay cut. The 27-year-old earns just under £17m a year at United, or £325,000 a week — top whack in the Premier League. Barca will pay him £12m, with Rashford forgoing the difference. The makeweight facilitates a deal to suit all sides but it is far from certain that Spain's governing body will approve it. In Barcelona terms, it's entirely on trend. United need this transfer to go through. Rashford is persona non grata in Ruben Amorim's first-team plans, and the forward is a horribly expensive spare part. Barca, likewise, need the 27-year-old to cover as a left-sided attacker or a centre-forward. And Rashford needs a break from Old Trafford. Win, win, win. Barca are already beyond the salary cap La Liga has set for them. Officially, they cannot register new signings for 2025-26 — so the process of loaning Rashford is ploughing ahead into the dark (Barca aren't in any position to buy him outright). Joan Garcia, the goalkeeper they bought from Espanyol last month, is already trapped in that limbo. Advertisement What Barca consistently manage to do, and what TAFC has touched on previously, is 'pull levers': a euphemism for 'find money from somewhere', via commercial agreements or player sales. It's what they'll have to do to ensure Rashford — or Garcia for that matter — can be involved in their opening league fixture at Mallorca on August 16. As an example, in December, Barca began selling long-term VIP box deals for the redeveloped, but as yet unfinished, Camp Nou (above). That initiative could raise £87m. Dermot has gone deeper in explaining some of their other levers and it's almost a tradition of every transfer window now: Barca searching every avenue to keep their recruitment churning. Realistically, the Rashford deal will proceed because it's gone too far not to, and because Barca have a knack of getting these moves done. It's how they operate — player first, bureaucracy second — but you can't help thinking it's a matter of time before the wing-and-a-prayer routine catches them out badly. 🎙️ The Rashford deal is the subject of the latest episode of The Athletic FC Podcast. Pol Ballus is becoming a veteran of levers and registration wrangles. Listen on Apple and Spotify. One name TAFC expected to be writing more about during Europe's close season was Gio Reyna. Few players on the continent are more desperate for a transfer but until now, mentions of the United States forward have been sporadic. We're seeing movement, however. This morning's DealSheet reveals that Serie A side Parma are targeting Reyna — still on the books of Borussia Dortmund in Germany, but as peripheral as ever — as a priority. Parma have an American owner (the Krause Group) and cash to spend after selling French forward Ange-Yoan Bonny to Inter for £20m. Advertisement Before this window closes, Reyna has to move on. A brief loan spell to Nottingham Forest aside, he has given his entire professional career to Dortmund, but he isn't getting games and it isn't working out. He is 22 and has a World Cup to think about. Talks between Parma and Dortmund went well over the weekend. Keep eyes on this one. Amusingly, the other line that jumped out of the DealSheet was Chelsea (would you believe it?) casting their eye over 22-year-old winger Xavi Simons at RB Leipzig. He's angling to leave, and Chelsea have an addiction to young, moderately expensive attackers. I'm not saying it's on, but history speaks for itself. Last week, after several years on the waiting list, I finally landed a season ticket for Edinburgh's finest, Heart of Midlothian. It cost £425, which struck me as decent value. It seemed even better value when I read Matt Woosnam's breakdown of season ticket costs in the Premier League. True, an adult can watch Burnley for no more than £525 in 2025-26 but the most expensive prices at nine clubs are now over £1,000. Fulham setting top dollar at £3,084 (over $4,000) is, well, preposterous. I'm not sure how these figures look to our U.S. readers — email in and let us know — because live sport in the States isn't cheap. The Premier League's most affordable options (£345 for an adult at West Ham United, for example) are far more inclusive. But certain charges are pricing out ordinary people, and they'll continue to soar. (Kick-off ET/UK time) Women's European Championship semi-final: England vs Italy, 3pm/8pm — Fox Sports/ITV. Japan's J1 League is tight. With 24 of 38 matchdays gone, its top five clubs are split by four points, leaving little in the way of margin for error. It remains to be seen, then, how badly Kyoto Sanga — fourth, and fully in the mix — rue the events of yesterday. They led Avispa Fukuoka 2-0 in the 93rd minute. They conspired to draw 2-2, conceding a full-blown pudding of an equaliser, above. Facepalms all round if that proves the difference.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Spain international defender reaches agreement with Champions League side
Athletic Club are enjoying their most successful spell in the 21st century, after winning the Copa del Rey two years ago, and returning to the Champions League this season. It has been met with renewed ambition in the transfer market. After securing a €15m deal for Alvaro Djalo last summer, Los Leones appear to be on the verge of signing Osasuna right-back Jesus Areso. The big 'signing' though has been the contract that was agreed with Nico Williams until 2035, staving off interest from Barcelona. Athletic are not done yet though. Aymeric Laporte set for Athletic return? Image via Marca According to Alberto Santacruz of RadioMarca, Athletic have now reached an agreement on personal terms with former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte. The ex-Lexama product is set to pen a three or four-year deal if Athletic can find an agreement with Al-Nassr, but Santacruz declares that 'everything will be closed this week'. The Basque giants must now find an agreement with the Saudi Arabian side, who started off demanding the €27.5m fee they spent on Laporte two summers ago. However negotiations are advanced, with Laporte pitching in to help the deal get done. Atletico Madrid option on the backburner Laporte has been heavily linked with a return to Athletic for the past year, and manager Ernesto Valverde had asked for his signing as a top priority. The 31-year-old was also an option for Atletico Madrid, but it appears they have gone in a different direction. Spain motivation for Laporte Part of the reason for his return to Europe is a bid to return to the Spain side. Luis de la Fuente left him out of the most recent squad, and Laporte's level has declined this year. A return to La Liga is in part a response to his place with La Roja being under threat, with the World Cup cresting the horizon next summer.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Barcelona are signing Marcus Rashford on loan. But will they even be able to register him?
At first, Barcelona agreeing to sign Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester United for the coming season seems like a deal that works for everyone. Rashford wanted to leave United, who were keen to get his £325,000-a-week ($438,000) wages off their books, while Barcelona have been looking for an experienced player to cover at left-wing and centre-forward. The 27-year-old fits that profile. Advertisement The immediate problem, however, is whether Barca will be able to even play Rashford given their long-running issues registering players within La Liga's strict salary limits. Their most recent registration problems came last winter, when only Spanish government intervention allowed the team to use attacking midfielder Dani Olmo and backup forward Pau Victor in the second half of 2024-25. Uncertainty over their squad situation led the Athletic Club attacker Nico Williams to decide against joining Barca this summer, after a deal had otherwise been agreed. So, not for the first (or last?) time, we look at Barcelona's current financial situation to see what hurdles are in place for Rashford to actually play for the team next season, and how Barca might be able to overcome them. The club are currently over their La Liga salary limit — essentially, the authorities maintain that during the 2024-25 the Catalan club spent more on players (inc transfer fees and wages) than they made in revenue. So, as things stand, Barcelona cannot register any new signings to play in any competition during 2025-26. That includes Rashford (if his move is completed), goalkeepers Joan Garcia and Wojciech Szczesny and the young winger Roony Bardghji, who have already been added to Hansi Flick's squad this summer. Barcelona's challenge is to either make room within their salary budget by moving out high-earning current players or finding significant new revenue streams. Barcelona were willing to trigger Williams' €58million (£50.3m) release clause to bring him in from Athletic, and key personal terms were verbally agreed between the club and Williams. But Williams wanted an exit clause inserted into the deal in case they could not register him with La Liga, having watched from the outside in previous summers when there had been registration drama with Olmo, his Spain team-mate, and Inigo Martinez, a former Athletic defender. Barcelona's sporting director Deco would not agree to this clause and Williams decided against the move, instead signing a new long-term deal at Athletic. Barcelona have been busy working on exits for numerous squad members this summer. La Masia-developed left-back Alex Valle was sold to Como for €6m, and young attacking midfielder Pablo Torre to Mallorca for €5m. French defender Clement Lenglet left for Atletico Madrid on a free transfer, and one-time teen sensation Ansu Fati was loaned to Monaco. Advertisement Deco is still working on other potential exits — the most important for Barca would be persuading goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to leave as the German is one of the club's biggest earners. If Ter Stegen can be convinced (though his camp insists he is staying), then Garcia and Szczesny would likely be first in the queue to be registered with La Liga, as Flick would need two trusted senior goalkeepers in his squad. Ter Stegen's situation is complicated by the player being owed a significant sum by Barcelona over the next three years after deferring his salary in previous years. That figure would not be sufficiently compensated by any potential signing-on fee at a new club if he were to leave on a free transfer. Barcelona are open to a mutual termination of his contract, but there has been no progress in those discussions. Ter Stegen is also currently sidelined by a back injury, which adds uncertainty to his situation. Others who could leave in the coming weeks include Denmark defender Andreas Christensen, unwanted backup goalkeeper Inaki Pena, holding midfielder Oriol Romeu and last summer's attacking signing Victor. Absolutely. Under La Liga's rules, the 'amortisation' (transfer fee divided by years of contract) of any new signing is counted towards a season's budget limit. Barcelona not paying United any loan fee is also helpful, as that outlay would also have to be fitted under the budget limit. Barcelona are covering the entirety of Rashford's wages but sources close to the deal, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, have told The Athletic that Rashford has taken a pay cut to the effect of between 15 per cent and 25 per cent depending on factors including bonuses. He was on €19.5m a year before tax at Manchester United (including bonuses), and the pay cut puts his gross salary at Barcelona at about €14m a year (before bonuses). This would still make him one of the biggest earners at the club alongside the likes of Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski. That salary means Barcelona need space of around €28m euros, including taxes. Players who are not registered with La Liga are not able to play for Barcelona in any competition — not the domestic league, Copa del Rey or Champions League. The risk of having to sit out a full season was a big reason why Williams asked for such strong guarantees from Barcelona and then decided to stay at Athletic when they were not forthcoming. Barcelona cannot send Rashford on loan to another club — to cover the first half of the season, for instance — without first having registered him with La Liga. In December, the Barcelona board decided to sell 25 years of future income from 475 VIP boxes at the Camp Nou, which is currently under reconstruction. That was their latest 'financial lever', a way of advancing future revenues. This was to bring in €100m from two different investors: €70m from New Era Visionary Group (NEVG), which is owned by Moldovan businessman Ruslan Birladeanu, and €30m from the Qatari-backed Forta Advisors Limited. La Liga have not received any details from Barcelona's auditors about this €100m and have therefore not included it within any salary limit calculations (it was intervention from the Spanish government which allowed Olmo and Victor to play for the team in the second half of last season). The club's president Joan Laporta has continued to maintain that the €100m is crucial in the club returning to a '1:1' situation with La Liga, whereby they can then spend a euro for every euro they raise — thereby making it much easier to register players. Advertisement Barcelona have yet to receive all of the €100m for those VIP seats, with sources speaking on condition of anonymity telling The Athletic that NEVG have only paid €28m of their promised €70m so far. Payment of that remaining €42m from NEVG could conceivably help Barcelona to register new players this summer — if they get the green light from La Liga. The club are already feeling the effects of past summers of lever pulling — most obviously, 25 per cent of their La Liga TV income (approx €40m) is being paid to U.S. financiers Sixth Street each season until 2047. Troubles with the 'Barca Studios/Barca Media/Barca Vision' lever continue to be felt. The team's 2024-25 salary budget was lowered by La Liga when previous auditors Grant Thornton mandated a €141m loss in the club's previous year's accounts due to Barca Vision. It remains to be seen whether Crowe, the current auditors, will also require a further 'write-down' in Barca Vision's accounting value for their 2024-25 accounts, which would have a further impact on the salary budget for next season. There remains an option for Barca to sell future revenues from more VIP seats at their new stadium, using the Personal Seat License (PSL) business model introduced last winter. Like the other levers, this could raise money immediately to register signings (including Rashford) while limiting the club's revenues and financial scope far into the future. Barca have also been looking to raise more commercial revenue and Reuters have reported they have agreed a training-kit deal with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which will bring in between €10m and €11.5m annually over the next four seasons. The new contract signed this summer with teenage superstar Yamal will also be taken into account by La Liga's financial team. As an existing player, Yamal is automatically registered, but his bumper salary means there is less space to fit in others. Some have floated the idea that Ter Stegen could undergo an operation to fix a long-standing back injury and that would allow Barca to use 80 per cent of his salary to register one other player for at least the first half of the 2025-26 season. This is what happened last August when Christensen was injured in the opening game of La Liga, which Barca took advantage of to register Olmo to play until December. The negative flipside of that is that most of Christensen's wages from last season will now be subtracted from the 2025-26 budget — meaning they have less space to register new players now. The biggest priorities of Barcelona's summer are covered with Rashford coming in as the new attacking reinforcement and the arrival of goalkeeper Garcia earlier in the summer. Different names are still going to do the rounds, especially in local media, but club sources insist Barcelona's focus will now be on securing departures so that current players can be registered. Experience tells us that these things tend to go right down to the line, with players not yet registered when the new La Liga season starts (Barcelona kick off at Mallorca on August 16), and then a race against time for a solution before the transfer window ends on Monday, September 1. More debate in public and private between Barcelona and La Liga over the interpretation of the salary limit rules looks quite likely, too. That will not be easy, given that relations were not good even before the row over Olmo's registration and the eventual involvement of the Spanish government. As things stand, Rashford can sign a contract to go on loan to Barcelona for the 2025-26 campaign, but unless things change, he cannot be registered to play for the Catalan club. (Additional contributor: Pol Ballus) (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
