Inaki Williams: Africa’s Basque hero

A seismic event happened in Spanish football last weekend, unseen in LaLiga in close to seven years – Athletic Bilbao’s Ghanaian local hero Inaki Williams missed a match.

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Williams’ quite staggering run without an injury, which ended as he sat on the sidelines watching his team lose 1-0 to Celta Vigo on Sunday, is just a small part of the 28 year-old’s amazing story.

‘Ghanaian local hero’ in the Basque region might seem like an odd turn of phrase, but Williams is certainly one of Bilbao’s own, born in that very city in June 1994 to a Liberian mother and Ghanaian father.

His parents left Ghana and trekked across the Sahara desert barefoot, his mother pregnant with Inaki, climbing over a fence to get into Melilla, a city in North Africa that is still part of Spain.

“I knew my dad had problems with the soles of his feet but not that it was because he had walked barefooted across the Sahara sand at 40, 50 degrees,” said Williams, in an interview with the Guardian in 2017, in which he recounted when his parents had finally told him their story.

“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.”

And Athletic Bilbao can be thankful to Williams now, as he has become the poster boy for their football club, coming through the well-known academy of a side famous for only using players from their local communities.

251 in a row!

With 251 consecutive LaLiga games under his belt until Sunday, Williams was also rewarded this week, as he was named LaLiga’s African MVP for the first half of the season.

“It’s been incredible, this long journey,” said Williams

“251 matches, I could not in my wildest dreams have imagined that, consecutively, without any resting, coaches have always counted on me and I have been very lucky with injuries.

“When the time came and I was injured, I didn’t think about the record I just thought about how I wouldn’t be able to continue and help the team. I think the team really needed me in that match. Now I have accepted the fact the record has come to an end, and I have to rest. My body has said ‘enough is enough’”

Inaki was only the second black player to play for Athletic Bilbao and was the only black player to score for them in La Liga before someone else did in September – Inaki’s younger brother Nico Williams.

Nico, 20, has chosen to represent Spain at international level while Inaki ultimately decided to honour his heritage and play for the Black Stars. Both represented their national teams at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year.

Williams is hopeful he will be fit in time for Ghana’s two Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola at the end of March.

“I really want to play again with the national team, for the people in Ghana who really encourage me, I have had great messages of support. I really want to get back to playing with Ghana in the Afcon,” said Williams.

“I am really excited about it. There are seven weeks to go but I will do as much as possible (to be fit).

“The experience (in Qatar) was fantastic. It didn’t end as we wanted or expected (Ghana went out in the group stages) but a lot of players were young and it was their first World Cup. The whole squad did its utmost for things to go well.

“You can win in football and sometimes you lose, but you always learn, I think we will be better in the future. We have a great team, with talented players. Hopefully in March we can meet with the fans and their encouragement will help us to do well.”

Both Williams brothers play as wide attackers and Inaki has 59 LaLiga goals for Athletic since first playing for them in the 2014/15 season.

This season, he has five goals in 18 appearances in La Liga, and Williams is hopeful he can break his previous one-season record of 13.

“One of my objectives at the start of any season is to score more goals than the previous season,” he said.

“I think there are sufficient matches, we still have the Copa Del Rey semifinals and it is still possible. I know my teammates will help and hopefully I will be lucky enough to scofre and beat my personal record and help my team qualify for the European competitions.”

There is little doubt Bilbao will need Williams to fire if they are to make it into Europe next season. They are currently nine points off a Champions League place and five away from a Europa League spot.