It was taken for granted that Williams would move to Barcelona, with the player having notified Athletic of his intention to join the La Liga champions. But this feeling of expectancy had filtered down to the first team squad, as has been reported by Diario AS. It’s also claimed that some of the players expressed this via text messages to those close to them.
Sport have backed up this information, confirming that surprise and disappointment are the two leading emotions that Barcelona players have expressed over Williams’ decision to turn down the move.
The news could be especially disappointing to the number of Barcelona players that Williams has a personal relationship with. Lamine Yamal is widely regarded as one of his best friends in football, while he is also close with Spain teammates Pau Cubarsi, Pedri, Gavi and Fermin Lopez, among others.
But according to the Catalan daily, those relationships have been – and will be – unaffected by Williams’ decision to U-turn on a move to Barcelona. The report also states that Lamine Yamal was informed of his friend’s decision to stay in Bilbao prior to Athletic’s announcement on Friday morning.
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