Nico Williams said two Barcelona players repeatedly convinced him to join them at the Camp Nou in the summer.
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Barca’s pursuit of Williams
Williams, who stood out for Spain at Euro 2024, garnered massive interest from Barcelona during the transfer window.
However, the forward decided to remain at Athletic for at least another season.
Instead, the Catalan giants acquired his compatriot Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig.
Despite the signing of Olmo, Williams said he faced some challenging times due to his links with Barcelona.
Speaking at La Revuelta TV show with his brother, Inaki Williams, he said: “You try to escape it a bit, but you always get some criticism here and there.
“Especially on Twitter, which is where people go hardest. I have suffered, to be honest, I won’t lie to you.”
“Even now that I’m no longer involved, I still get messages saying they don’t need me anymore. They would say all kinds of things, from both sides.”
Williams convinced him to join Barcelona
Williams also revealed that his Spain teammates were trying to convince him to join Barcelona.
In fact, Lamine Yamal and Alejandro Balde would text him all the time.
“On top of that, the ‘bastards’ of [Barca] Lamine [Yamal] and [Alejandro] Balde and others didn’t help. They would say to me ‘brother come now, come now.'”
Barcelona currently leads the LaLiga table under Hansi Flick.
