Barcelona ‘expected to complete’ Nico Williams deal if Laporta gives green light

Athletic Club winger Nico Williams and Barcelona: the saga from last summer has returned with force in the last few days, and shows no sign of slowing up. On Friday it was reported that Williams’ agent, Felix Tainta, met with Barcelona Director of Football Deco, and now they have been placed in pole position for his signature.

Williams, 22, was supposedly off the agenda for Barcelona as recently as a few weeks ago, but the latest is that the Basque winger has made it clear he is enthusiastic about a move to the Catalan giants this month. As of Monday morning though, Liverpool winger Luis Diaz was still being cited as Barcelona’s top priority, and President Joan Laporta seemingly has a series of doubts about moving for Williams this summer. In his corner is the not insignificant desire of Lamine Yamal to unite with his Spain teammate at club level.

According to Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sports Deutschland though, Barcelona are now leading the race to sign Williams. Following on from previous reports that Williams could decide to either move to Barcelona or renew his deal with Athletic rather than go abroad, Plettenberg has announced that the Blaugrana are ahead of Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Laporta is now analysing the deal to work out if the deal is financially valuable, and whether they can register him if they do sign Williams. Manager Hansi Flick is supposedly ‘determined’ to sign him, and Bayern have been informed that Barcelona are in pole position, and if they do move for him, are expected to get a deal done.

It does appear the Barcelona coach is a fan of Williams, who turns 23 in July. Jijantes back up the idea in Germany that Flick is advocating for his signing. They say that Flick has already explained his plans for next season and the coming year to Williams over the phone. It seems Barcelona’s finances, as is so often the case, will be decisive.