Barcelona intend to go for Nico Williams next summer – shirt number in mind | OneFootball

Barcelona did not manage to get a deal over the line for Nico Williams this summer, despite being heavily linked with the Athletic Club star. The latest in Catalonia is that Barcelona will come back in for the 22-year-old next summer.

Williams appeared to turn down a chance to move to Barcelona, although there were also doubts about their ability to pay his €58m release clause. However Sport say that Williams had given the green light for a move to the Blaugrana, but imposed certain conditions that the Blaugrana could not meet.

The Basque winger did not want to leave Bilbao on poor terms, and requested that the deal be closed in a swift fashion, and also that they guaranteed they could register him immediately. This was something Barcelona were convinced they could do, but could not guarantee.

The proof is in Dani Olmo, who was only registered after Andreas Christensen was injured, and his salary was used to help register Olmo under the emergency injury rule. One of the reasons Barcelona thought they might be able to register Williams was the potential new sponsorship deal with Nike, which they are still working on, but never went through this summer either.

Barcelona had even planned to hand the number 10 shirt to Williams, and intended to sell Ansu Fati. Provided the conditions are right though, the intention at Barcelona is to sign Williams next summer though.

Of course Barcelona will be hoping to be in a better place financially next summer, with a return to Camp Nou on the horizon, albeit at a reduced capacity, and will be intent on getting the Nike deal done. However they also have a number of major contracts to address, including those of Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, Lamine Yamal and Gavi.