Nico Williams walked away from Barcelona because nobody could promise him he would actually be registered. That is the verdict of his agent Felix Tainta, who has lifted the lid on the Athletic Bilbao winger's collapsed move in the summer of 2025, a saga that ended with the player signing on at San Mames until 2035.
Speaking on the podcast "Los Fulanos", Tainta explained that negotiations with Barcelona hit a point where gambling on his client's future made no sense. Williams needed to play. He also needed to stay sharp for international duty.
Nico Williams' agent said, as reported by the Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo": "We spoke with Barcelona, and of course Athletic Bilbao were aware of everything, because I was constantly keeping them informed of developments, despite the club's anger at Barcelona over the way they handled the negotiations."
He added: "After that the talks began, and we reached a point where Nico could no longer go without playing. Nico is like a Formula 1 car, and when I come to your house, I am not supposed to carry your problems. That is what I made clear to Barcelona."
Tainta then spelled out how the final call was made: "We decided that if we did not obtain certain guarantees, we could not risk Nico moving there and then not being able to play. There was a World Cup, and even setting that tournament aside, he is a professional player who must practise his profession."
He continued: "I am coming to your club in order to practise my profession, and therefore I have to carry on doing my job. If you have a problem, it should not affect me. And if you do not give me guarantees that your problem will not affect me, I may have to change my mind, and that is exactly what happened."
Barcelona chased Nico Williams from the summer of 2024
This was not a new obsession. Barcelona had already gone after Williams in the summer of 2024, chasing him on the back of his standout displays for Spain at the European Championship.
Half of Europe joined the queue, according to his agent. "Everyone knows about Barcelona's interest in the summer of 2024, after the Euros. Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain... everyone wanted to sign Nico, and it is not easy to have a player who turns down all of those clubs."
Tainta stressed that the winger had proved his loyalty long before the Barcelona circus, renewing his contract in December 2023 with the final free period looming, a window that could have allowed him to walk away for nothing.
"We renewed the contract for three years," Tainta said. "Imagine what Nico could have earned had he become a free agent, especially after the level he showed at the Euros. But we felt that we should not leave in that way."
He added: "We renewed the contract while keeping the same release clause. We could have left for free and received a huge signing bonus, but we did not do that. The player was loyal to Athletic Bilbao."
Nico Williams was thinking about leaving
The temptation was real. Tainta admitted Williams genuinely weighed up a move elsewhere, driven by ambition and the pull of Europe's biggest trophies, but the offers alone were never going to settle it.
"Nico was thinking about leaving," his agent said. "When you are at Athletic Bilbao, you know the limits of the club's potential, and you know that you will not win the Champions League, and perhaps you will not win La Liga either."
Without those guarantees from Barcelona, and with stability and minutes weighing heavily, Williams stayed put. He signed until 2035 and shut down the noise around his future in the summer of 2025.