€70m player said ‘yes’ to Barcelona President, but financial woes ruined the deal | OneFootball

Photo by LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images

In the last summer transfer window, FC Barcelona were very strongly linked with the Spanish forward Nico Williams. He was reported to be the top transfer target of the Blaugrana club, but eventually decided to stay with his current side, Athletic Club.

This operation generated a lot of interest, especially in Barcelona fans, and also in Spanish and European football followers in general. As a result, different people put forward various explanations for its failure after it became clear that Nico would not arrive at the Catalan club this summer.

One version of the story stated that despite Barcelona’s strong interest in the player, the Catalans could not obtain a definite go-ahead from the player. However, the latest report from SPORT on this subject claims that the €70m-rated Spanish player had actually given the nod to Barcelona.

The report mentions that Nico had said yes but in a personal capacity to Joan Laporta. However, despite this first success, several other factors made it impossible for Barcelona to pull this operation off.

After obtaining the yes from Nico, the Blaugranes had to face perhaps the most difficult part of the operation, paying his €60 million release clause to Athletic Club. The Catalans were hopeful that they would obtain this amount by arriving at a new deal with Nike or by selling some of their important players like Ronald Araujo and Frenkie de Jong.

However, neither of these things happened, as Barcelona still have not arrived at a new deal with Nike, while long-term injuries to the aforementioned players also kept them from departing.

In such a context, Barcelona moved quickly to minimize their damages and obtained the next target on their list, Dani Olmo. He signed for the Catalans on 9th August for a fee that can also go up to €60 million if he meets the various variables included in his contract.