The Williams brothers build ‘monument to football’ on Athletic’s anniversary

Photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

It could have been a scene from their childhood, but for the 48,781 people who were there. Nico Williams had just curled in the kind of goal you shouldn’t score with your wrong foot, falling as he flew the ball past Jan Oblak into the corner, and now he stood on the north side of San Mamés, the place that erupts into songs of praise . Atlético Madrid were defeated, his Athletic Club teammates hugged him while all the fans who would have done the same if given half a chance started chanting his name. Then his big brother knelt down, invited him to put his weight on him as he always had, and cleaned his boot.

When Iñaki Williams was little and Nico Williams was even littler, he would often pick up his brother in the morning, prepare his breakfast, get his clothes ready and take him to school. In the afternoon he would come pick him up and bring a sandwich. He took Nico to matches – sometimes refereeing – and to the park to play, then dusted him off. One day he won one, Nico told former Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque, passing it on to his sibling and prompting his brother’s friends to switch sides. Iñaki was 18, Nico 10.

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Nico was certainly special. They both are. Within about a year they were at Athletic, Iñaki joining in 2012 and Nico following in 2013 at the age of 11. They have been playing together in the first team since April 2021; now aged 29 and 21 respectively, they lead it. Saturday’s 2-0 win over Atlético Madrid was Nico’s 100th game for the club. It was Iñaki’s 400th, of which 251 played consecutively, a record that will never be equaled. It was also the match with which Athletic, the club that prides itself on tradition and identity like no other, concluded its 125th anniversary. And now it was perfect.

Before the match, a statue of goalkeeper José Ángel Iribar was unveiled outside San Mamés on the spot that once occupied the degree general. Attended by every surviving president, the 80-year-old whose symbolism escapes adjectives – “the people’s goalkeeper” in the words of the bertsolari or street poet Jon Maia – received a guard of honor. Jon Rahm then provided the honorary kick-off in a traditional black Iribar top, the last of 12 ambassadors for the year, including Thomas Hitzlsperger, pelotari Jokin Altuna, Honey Thaljieh and Miguel Isasi Balanzategi, a member chosen by draw to represent them all. Then a veteran match against Porto, the first club Athletic ever faced in Europe, ended with Aritz Aduriz finally getting the farewell denied him by the pandemic, as he immersed himself in a Panenka.

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And halfway through, Athletic broke up Atlético, the club that started as their branch in the capital. It was, said coach Ernesto Valverde, a performance “befitting the festivities, a great match against a great opponent”. This, Nico said, “was for Iribar”. As Alberto Barbero beautifully put it in Marca: “In the morning they unveiled a statue; In the afternoon they built a monument to football.” By half-time Athletic had hit a post twice, sent three more attempts just wide and sent a penalty into the stands, but had not scored. Which, according to the law, is when they kill you for letting them go. Instead, they continued to run relentlessly towards Atlético from everywhere. “Those are not lions, but dragons,” read the AS headline. And by the end they had created fourteen chances to Atlético’s three and two to Atlético’s nil, a score that Ander Herrera rightly insisted he “fell short”. “They were much better than us,” admitted Diego Simeone. “In another time, fans would have taken out the tissues, but no one uses them anymore,” El Correo lamented.

This was perhaps the best performance of anyone this season. And yet it wasn’t That a big outlier, at least not here. Since the opening day defeat to Real Madrid, Athletic have been beaten only twice – in the last minute at Barcelona and in the derby at Real Sociedad – and not at home at all, scoring two, four, four, two, three, two. three and four in San Mamés. Nobody has more home goals and at San Mamés they already have more than in the whole of last season. Girona coach Michel said they were the best team his side had ever seen and the victory moved them to within two points of Atlético, just three of Barcelona.

Over their last seven games, Athletic have averaged over fifteen shots per game and have not been beaten in seven games. Last season they created a lot, but didn’t score enough: now it’s falling into place. Gorka Guruzeta, who made his debut in 2019 but has been to Sabadell and Amorebieta and back and been relegated twice in a row, scored eight times, including the opener on Saturday. That’s already more than he got last season, but it’s more than goals; it’s about the way it works around him. Oihan Sancet scored three goals, four assists and created 27 scoring chances this season. And then there is them.

The best winger in Spain this season is Williams. The second best winger in Spain is also Williams. Nico has three goals and five assists. Iñaki has eight goals and three assists. Only Bryan Zaragoza has more dribbles than Nico. Only Rodrygo has more shots than Iñaki. Only Jude Bellingham, Antoine Griezmann and Borja Mayoral scored more goals. No one has more assists than Nico and Iñaki is only two behind. Together they created 58 chances (Nico 30, Iñaki 28), breaking into teams, one on each side of the pitch and yet both on all sides, there was no escape for the family. Not until they left: first Iñaki and then Nico, both to standing ovations.

Osasuna 1-0 Rayo Vallecano, Valencia 1-1 Barcelona, ​​​​Sevilla 0-3 Getafe, Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Atlético, Celta Vigo 1-0 Granada, Real Madrid 4-1 Villarreal, Las Palmas 1-1 Cádiz, Real Sociedad 0 -0 Real Betis, Almeria 0-0 Real Mallorca

In the first half on Saturday the two posts were theirs – one each – and in the second it was Iñaki’s point that breathed new life into the action and led to Guruzeta’s opener. From virtually the same spot, Nico produced a shot that was as exceptional as it was unexpected – “I asked him since he was left-footed,” Valverde said later – which secured the victory and much more. Of all the twelve anniversary ambassadors there, one must have been the happiest – Iñaki and Nico’s mother, Maria – and when her eldest knelt to wipe her youngest’s boot, it could hardly have been a better fit, the epitome of belonging. An act of respect, only a little different, deeper: a warmth there, a journey, something in the photo that reminds of love and a million laces tied, a thousand washed kits, of care, of pride.

Even if they still managed to get off on the wrong foot.

Iñaki, the children of Ghanaians who crossed the Sahara, was born in Bilbao – fate, he calls it – eight years before Nico arrived. Which, because Maria worked all day and their father Felix left to look for work in London (lucky if they saw him once a year), meant that he was not just a brother, but a father, and former athletics coach Marcelino called him “a real father, whose influence on how Nico is and how he behaves is absolutely decisive”. There’s a reason the lion in Nico’s tattoo is Iñaki and he’s the cub. Living through sacrifices and experiencing economic difficulties that his brother never saw, determined that he would make it for them all, Iñaki was a strict father, the responsibility to guide was also a guiding light for him: It is not just that Williams Jr. might not have made it without that paternal father. role, it is that Williams Sr may not have done either. Instead, they have both together – and for the best athletic side in a decade.

When Nico went to take off his second medal after the 2022 Super Cup final, Iñaki gently warned him and told him to put it back on, never to forget what it had cost to get here, the dream they lived. He then placed a hand on his neck in comfort as he watched in devastation as Madrid held the trophy aloft. When Nico missed the opportunity that would have taken them to the Copa del Rey final last season, Iñaki went straight to his mother’s house, where Nico still lived, to support him. And when Nico extended his contract two weeks ago, to allay fears that the most exciting player Athletic has produced in a generation would walk away, Iñaki was there to plant a huge kiss on his cheek.

They would remain inseparable – at club level at least after Iñaki kept a promise to their grandfather and agreed to play for Ghana the same week Nico was called up to Spain – and the next day Nico celebrated by scoring a brilliant goal against Rayo Vallecano. , running to hug the brother who had done the same four minutes earlier. The next time he was in San Mamés – disappeared on Saturday – the site they call the cathedral and in whose community they had grown up, Nico did it again, providing the perfect ending to Athletic’s anniversary, with Iñaki waiting there for him, like he always had.