Nico Williams (Pamplona, 2002), one of the sensations of the European Championship and a key part of the Spanish national team’s eye-catching attacking system, turned 22 yesterday, just two days before tomorrow’s final against England at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin (21.00, La1), where he did not feel comfortable in the opening game against Croatia. That helped him take off.
Ask. You’re turning 22 today. With some of your colleagues, are you starting to feel like you’re not so young anymore?
Answer. In football, age is a different issue. With all the kids out there… I consider myself a kid too… And tomorrow Lamine turns 17.
P. Five years difference…
R. It’s been five years, but it doesn’t really show.
P. For him or for you?
R. For his age, he is very mature. He doesn’t look like a 16-year-old. Everything has come to him very quickly: football, his family has had a bit of a complicated situation… That makes you mature faster.
P. Do you feel that you have also matured by being aware of him? Have you found yourself doing things with Lamine that your brother, Iñaki, did with you?
R. It’s true that in many situations I see myself as Iñaki with me. Sometimes it’s my turn. He asks me for a lot of advice: what to do and what not to do. I have a little more experience, but not much more than him, but I try to help him as much as possible. He’s a good guy. He likes to listen to others, to the older guys. Not just me; to the captains. He knows that it will make him grow as a player and as a person.
P. Any examples of things Iñaki now says to Lamine?
R. There are a lot of them… For example, the issue of social media. Maybe he wants to upload something, like I did when I was little. And I tell him: “Don’t upload this, you could cause trouble.” After all, you’re not 16 years old anymore. You’re not a normal person anymore, and maybe he doesn’t realize it.
P. When does one feel that one is not a normal person?
R. The difference is when you go out on the street and people ask you for photos. Before, you went unnoticed: you’re with your friends in a bar and nobody approaches you, nobody looks at you. The difference is the looks. When you enter a place, everyone looks at you. They don’t say anything to you, but they look at you. At first, it’s a little intimidating.
P. How do you deal with that?
R. At first it’s hard because you’re not used to it: you go into a place and everyone is looking at you. Why are they looking at me? Over time, it becomes normal for people to look at you, to ask you for a photo.
P. In the countryside, they also know you better, they have studied you more. Is it more difficult to surprise?
R. Yes, obviously. In the last match, Koundé, who knows me well, knew my moves. In the end, I have to improvise things that come more naturally against other opponents who don’t know me as well. It’s true that they are getting to know me, but I am also improving as a player, because I am finding myself in more complex situations and that makes me grow.
P. Do you think a lot when you are in front of people who know you?
R. Yes, I’m constantly thinking. It comes naturally to me, it just comes out of me, but with the players I’ve faced I try to do different things, move in places I might not have moved before: different things so they don’t catch me.
P. What would have become of you if you hadn’t been transferred to another band?
R. Wow! An incredible decision by the coach. Ernesto (Valverde) decided that he had to change wing, that he could score many more goals playing with his wrong foot, that he was going to play more naturally. And he was right. It was a bit difficult for me, it seemed a bit strange. I had always played as a forward, as a right winger, never with his wrong foot.
P. Did he tell you: “I don’t know if it suits me”?
R. No! What I want is to play. Wherever I am, it will be fine. It makes you a little different, it makes you change as a player and that makes you better too.
P. Who did you look to for that change?
R. I really liked Mbappé. He had something similar: he started out on the natural wing and ended up playing on the opposite wing. I paid a lot of attention to his dribbles, his deep movements. He is one of the best players in the world, and I try to copy him as much as possible.
P. On Sunday you return to Berlin. How do you remember the first match there against Croatia? Were you comfortable?
R. To be honest, I was very nervous because it was my first European competition as a starter, unlike the last World Cup, when I didn’t have as much of a role. You can already feel that weight and responsibility. The first game was difficult for me, and I think it was obvious that it was a bit difficult for me to get into the game. In the second game I let go. I was just myself and that’s it.
P. How did you manage to make that change from one game to the next?
R. It’s a mental thing. I saw my actions against Croatia repeated over and over again. I saw that I was doing things that weren’t me, and I said to myself, ‘It can’t be, you’re playing in a European Championship, you’ve earned a place in the starting eleven, you’ve earned the chance to try and do things with the national team. What’s this about being nervous? You have to have personality. If you want to be one of the greatest, you can’t be nervous in these games.’ In a game like Sunday’s final, too. You have to have personality, you have to be yourself, show that you’re worthy of these games and that you can be very great.
P. It worked. He played a great game against Italy.
R. Yes, because everything comes from the mentality. I told myself that I was the best, although I probably am not on the pitch. But you have to have that love for yourself. Playing with Lamine, if one doesn’t shine, the other shines, because they concentrate more on one wing than the other. We complement each other very well. If there is a day that I am missing it is because he is shining. And vice versa.
P. It helps that he is on the field.
R. I’m really interested in having a winger who is similar to me, who is a dribbler. He’s going to accumulate a lot of people on his side and I’m going to be left with one-on-one situations with the full-back. And the same with him: the coach told me that on the day of the match against France. Lamine often had one-on-one situations and I had Dembélé and Koundé.
P. When the game gets tough, who do you look at?
R. To everyone. Above all, to Mora (Morata). Many people don’t recognise his work in Spain. He’s a captain that many would like to have. He’s the first one who is there to encourage us. It’s not all about goals. A captain has to show you that strength and courage to win games. I think you could see that in the last game before, that he gives everything for this team, that he cried after we qualified for the final. He’s the one who lives it the most, the one who most wants to do things well. And people are often very unfair to him.
P. Do you talk about this among yourselves?
R. You think about it. Morata is a very transparent person, who tries to help as much as possible. He is a captain of 10. I understand the criticism that he is not accurate in front of goal, but that is not all. I think it is being shown that the team is an incredible unity, that he is the pillar that, together with the coach, is making us go forward. Many people are very unfair with him. I invite people to enjoy Sunday, because I am sure he will score a couple of goals.
P. Would you prefer him to score?
R. It’s okay. I don’t care, I want to win. Win, win. Take the cup to Spain and that’s it, that’s the number one objective.
P. Did you see yourself out of the tournament at any point?
R. No. From day one I have always been convinced that we would be up there. It is true that individually, in terms of players, France may have a better squad, for example, with Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé… In the end we are showing the strength of the team, that we are all going in the same direction. We are all rowing in the same direction. On Sunday we have a great opportunity to show that we want to win this cup, that we deserve it. I think we deserve it more than anyone else.
P. Is this England, which has shown the strength to come back several times, more frightening?
R. England is a great team. They have great players. They showed that in the game against Holland. None of them had control of the game, but they come at you twice and they give you a boost. We are clear about what we are going to do in the game, the manager is very clear about it. I think the cup is going to go to Spain.
P. July 14th, the day of the final, is also the day of Pobre de mí, the end of the Sanfermines…
R. Wow, they’ve sent me a lot of videos. I’m from Pamplona and many friends who are there send me videos, they make video calls from there. But I’m very proud to be here. If I miss the Sanfermines because of this, then let them come back every year.
P. What do you think when Laporta publicly states that he is in a position to sign you?
R. Nothing. I’m 100% focused on the Euros. I’m not interested in anything that comes from outside. I’m just focused on this and that’s it.
P. At this Euro, after Mbappé’s comments on the elections, there has been a lot of talk about the relationship between footballers and politics. How do you see it?
R. I respect all opinions. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. I always try to keep my distance, because we are public figures and we have a lot of influence. I don’t understand much about politics either. My parents understand more than anyone else, my brother more than anyone else. And I try to do what I’m good at, playing football.
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