Nico Williams surprised Barcelona officials by renewing his contract with Athletic Bilbao. The news was so shocking that the club learned of it through the Basque club’s official tweet announcing the deal. The player did not even inform the Catalans of his rejection of their offer.
Joan Laporta’s administration is in a state of intense anger, and has decided that Barcelona’s door is permanently closed to Williams, even if he is available for free in the coming years. His actions with the club over the past two years can only be described as disastrous.
Meanwhile, Barcelona has developed a plan B, including two names, to compensate for the failure to sign Williams, given Hansi Flick’s insistence on signing a new left winger this summer.
Barcelona’s Plan to Replace Williams
According to Sport, Barcelona’s management fears that the entire summer transfer window will fail because of Williams’ actions. Therefore, the club will move quickly to sign a left winger, and has already identified two names.
Barcelona’s preferred option, and Plan A, is Liverpool star Luis Díaz. However, signing the Colombian international currently seems next to impossible, given the English club’s insistence on his services. Bayern Munich was informed of this in the past few hours after sporting director Max Eberl made an attempt to sign the player.
Plan B, and the more realistic option, is Manchester United star Marcus Rashford, who is so obsessed with moving to Barcelona that he is willing to take a significant salary cut to wear the Catalan shirt.
United are looking to offload the England international, and Aston Villa have announced they will not activate Rashford’s buyout clause. This leaves Barça open to signing the player, knowing that he will cost no more than €40 million, and the amount can be paid in installments, unlike the Nico Williams deal.
🚨 Barcelona are planning new approach for Luis Diaz in the next days/weeks after Nico deal off.
Liverpool already closed doors to both Barça and FC Bayern in the recent weeks; not an easy one.
Marcus Rashford also remains still keen on Barça move.
🎥 https://t.co/VIlzdLPEn8 pic.twitter.com/hxJsJiQTYl
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 4, 2025
Other Options on Barcelona’s Table
It’s true that Barcelona’s main plan is currently either Díaz or Rashford, but there are other names on the Catalan table as well.
One of those names is Rafael Leão, especially since the Portuguese international clearly informed Milan’s management of his desire to leave. However, the Rossoneri are demanding at least €70 million, a figure that is extremely difficult for Barcelona to obtain.
Moroccan striker to move to Real Madrid
Another, less expensive name is Atalanta star Ademola Lookman, whom Barcelona could only sign for €40-50 million, but there are doubts that his quality will be sufficient to fill the gap on the left wing.
Why did Nico Williams reject a move to Barcelona?
Negotiations between Barcelona and Williams had reached such an advanced stage that some Spanish newspapers considered the deal a done deal. However, in recent days, the deal began to rapidly collapse, due to Barça’s economic situation.
Williams, 22, wanted written guarantees that Barcelona would succeed in signing him, and he also demanded that Laporta include a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave for free if the club failed to sign him before the end of the transfer window.
These were the early ramifications of the crisis between Barcelona and Williams. Despite the Catalans’ optimism about resolving the crisis and signing the player before July 9, the shocking, unexpected decision by the player to renew his contract with Bilbao until the summer of 2035 came as a surprise.
