Iñaki Williams is not the type to bite his tongue. Quite the contrary. Whenever he can, he speaks loud and clear and he did it again today when talking about the Spanish Super Cup which will be played starting next week in Saudi Arabia. “Playing in Saudi is shit, talking bad,” the Athletic captain said. According to him, “taking a national competition to another country is not easy for the fans and does not facilitate this movement. In the end, we as a social mass seem to be playing away and if it was here we all know the Athleticzales that they would accompany us,” he laments.
In addition, on a personal level, his future fatherhood means that the trip does not come at the best time either. “In the next few days I’m going to be a father and having to leave and having to leave my wife and son here is a chore,” says the eldest Williams brother, aware of course that “they’re part of the job.” Despite everything, he made it clear that he was “at the club’s disposal” and that he would try to “do the best possible in the Super Cup”.
The red and white team will play the first semi-final of the Super Cup on Wednesday January 7 in Jeddah against FC Barcelona and if they beat the Barça team, they will play the final on Sunday 11 against the winner of Real Madrid-Atlético de Madrid scheduled for Thursday 8. Despite his opinion of playing the Super Cup so far from home, Iñaki Williams recognizes that “it’s always special to be able to compete for a title.” “We are among the four best. We are not the favorites. We know very well what we have to do, but it is not going to be easy”, predicts a footballer who has the measure of Barcelona.
The captain of the red and white team has always performed very well against the Blaugrana. In fact, he has already scored seven goals against the team blaugrana. He scored in this 2021 Super Cup, but also in the 2015 Cup final, in the quarter-finals of the KO competition in 2020 and in 2024, in which Athletic ended up being champions, he scored a goal for them fresh from the Africa Cup on the same afternoon.
Iñaki Williams knows that he is not living his best moment, and that is why he asks for “health and goals” in the new year. “Goals are love. What the people at the top need is to be able to help the team by scoring goals. We are a team that creates a lot of chances and the fact that the points did not arrive is very important for the players at the top who have not been at our highest level,” he says honestly. Thus, the wish for 2026 is that “I can return to my prime“I can help my team to be able to give assists, score, especially goals,” he hopes. In addition to goals, he asks for health because “after so long without injury, the last two months have been difficult personally.” The team didn’t shine either and I hope we can get back on the path to triumph,” he aspires.
Support for Valverde
During his appearance, Iñaki Williams also came to the defense of Ernesto Valverde, who also did not escape criticism regarding his team’s poor results. “It’s difficult for me to understand why people criticize him. The team is 100% for him. In the end, it was him who won us a title 40 years later and qualified us for the Champions League. His support speaks for itself, for everything he has achieved at the club and I think it wouldn’t be fair because of this bad patch we’re going through,” he analyzes. In this sense, he maintains that “it is important for the youngest that the reality is this, that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to change. We are a team that has a lot of ambition and we hope that in 2026 we can fly high.”
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