Adam

“You’re top half until you’re 11th, that’s how it works.”

Brothers Iñaki & Nico Williams were overcome with emotion as Athletic Club won the Copa del Rey last night. The story of their family’s journey from Ghana to Bilbao is incredibly inspiring, with their birth in the region meaning they are able to play for the club who only select players of Basque origin. Iñaki Williams: “Our parents had crossed the desert by foot. I knew my dad had problems with the soles of his feet but not that it was because he had walked barefoot across the Sahara sand at 40, 50 degrees. They did part in a truck, one of those with the open back, 40 people packed in, then walked days. People fell, left along the way, people they buried. It’s dangerous: there are thieves waiting, rapes, suffering. Some are tricked into it. Traffickers get paid and then halfway say: ‘The journey ends here.’ Chuck you out, leave you with nothing: no water, no food. Kids, old people, women. People go not knowing what’s ahead, if they’ll make it. My mum said: ‘If I knew, I would have stayed.’ She was pregnant with me but didn’t know. My friends and I talk about it (the fact he was born in Bilbao): bloody hell, incredible. Everything happens for a reason. If I hadn’t been born in Bilbao, I could never have played for Athletic. My parents crossed the desert and were taken to the Basque country. That doesn’t feel like chance.”