Will Iñaki break Iribar’s appearance record? | OneFootball

Iñaki Williams has ended his Ghana chapter after two World Cups and an Africa Cup of Nations, to protect his body at 32 and focus on Athletic. The club captain’s run-out against Elche at San Mamés took him to 515 official games, beyond Etxeberria’s 514, and into fifth on the club’s all-time list.

According to as.com, he appears to be a one-club man and his totals keep climbing. Only Iribar on 614, De Marcos on 573, Muniain on 560 and Txetxu Rojo on 541 are ahead, and few doubt he will overhaul the latter two.

He is 100 short of what would be a legendary summit of 615. He played 39, 50 and 39 games in the past three seasons, roughly 42 per campaign, so at that rate he could clear Iribar in around two and a half seasons.

This is his 13th season in the first team. Williams debuted on 6 December 2014 under Valverde against Córdoba at San Mamés and has since passed 100 goals for Athletic.

He also set the league record for consecutive appearances, 251 straight between April 2016 and January 2023.

His medal haul includes the 2023/24 Copa and the 2015 and 2021 Supercopas.

Even so, the day ended flat. He produced a dazzling nutmeg, missed a sitter, was again short of punch as a nine and went off with discomfort that Terzic considered minor.

Source: as.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”