Barcelona reportedly agreed the conditions with Athletic Club-Vleugel player to join the club for a six-year-old deal. Now comes the most difficult part for the Blaugrana: finding the money to activate his release clause of € 58 million.
As reported yesterday, Williams and Barcelona have in principle reached an agreement on conditions, which has since been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano. Sport confirms that Williams is 'crazy' about signing for Barcelona and has made his willingness to make the deal clear. He even offered to ask Athletic to negotiate instead of demanding his release clause, but the Blaugrana is planning to find a way to get the money together. The two clubs currently have bad institutional relationships.
According to Diario AS, Athletic still has the hope of retaining Nico Williams. Both she and Bayern Munich wait to see if the Blaugrana can pay his release clause, but Los Leones will offer him a new deal and one that will pay him more than he would earn in Catalonia. They are kept confidence that they can hold him for a season in the Champions League.
In the meantime, RAC1 says that Barcelona is making significant progress with regard to the arrival of Williams. They say that the club and Williams want to ensure that it is guaranteed that it can be registered before they perform the clause, and the deal will be on their salary limit.
Barcelona director of Football Deco was traveled to Ibiza quite publicly on Wednesday, where both Hansi Flick and Williams are on vacation. El Chiringuito reports that Deco has had a meeting with Flick to discuss their potential arrivals and departure, and their plans for next season. During the mentioned meeting, the pair called Williams.
The 22-year-old would be the ninth most expensive signing in the history of Barcelona if they drop off the deal. On Wednesday, the Blaugrana confirmed their first signing of the summer and paid the release clause of Joan Garcia € 25 million to sign him from Espanyol.