Ghanaian-born Spanish international Nico Williams has opened up about the extraordinary journey that brought his family from Ghana to Europe, revealing how his father once worked as a maintenance electrician at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
The 23-year-old winger, who broke into the Athletic Bilbao first team in 2021 and helped Spain win Euro 2024, credited his father’s work ethic and perseverance for shaping his own approach to football.
Nico was born in Bilbao in 2002, eight years after his brother Iñaki Williams, following their parents’ arduous migration from Ghana. The family’s journey involved crossing 2,000 miles of the Sahara Desert to reach the Spanish exclave of Melilla—often barefoot and in extreme heat—with not everyone making it to their destination.
After being detained upon arrival, a lawyer helped the family claim they were from war-torn Liberia, allowing them to continue to Bilbao, where they received support from a local man named Inaki. Within months, Iñaki was born, and the family began building a new life.
Reflecting on their sacrifices, Nico told FourFourTwo, “From a young age, I learned what suffering is. I learned how to share values that other people don’t have. Thanks to my parents, I have them. I’ve never lacked anything because they’ve always been there for me.”
The Williams family’s resilience extended to London, where their father worked first at a shopping centre near Stamford Bridge before moving into the stadium itself. “Yes, it’s a very strange story,” Nico admitted. “But my dad was there—working as a maintenance electrician, and things like that.”
