Williams brothers enjoy stirring send-off at Athletic after international calls

On Sunday evening Iñaki Williams boarded a plane north to Paris. About the time he set off from there to Le Havre on Monday, Nico Williams was heading in the other direction, south to Barajas and on to Las Rozas, 25km outside Madrid. On Saturday, a night none of them would ever forget – a delirious, joyous celebration of everything they are – they had embraced; then, for the first time, Bilbao’s brothers went separate ways. “It was always our dream to play together and see our mum happy,” Iñaki says. This week they won’t, a new chapter beginning in their lives. But they’ll be back and, boy, had they had a send off.

As for their mum, Maria, she couldn’t be happier. The scheduling means hopefully she’ll be able to see both her sons take their next, giant steps, for a start. This Friday, Iñaki Williams will probably make his debut for Ghana against Brazil in France, aged 28. The following night, Nico Williams, eight years younger, will probably make his for Spain against Switzerland in Zaragoza. They arrive having celebrated those call-ups with a 3-2 win over Rayo Vallecano to take Athletic into a Champions League place. It was Inaki’s 239th consecutive game – yes, two hundred and thirty-ninth and, yes, consecutive – for Athletic. It was Nico’s 48th in total. It was also the first match in which they had both scored, San Mamés roaring all around them.

The first time Iñaki played for Athletic, back in 2014, he still didn’t know exactly how he had got there. He was 20 when his mum sat him down and told him how she was pregnant with him when she and her husband Felix left Ghana and crossed the Sahara by truck and barefoot – Felix still has problems walking – and climbed the fence into Melilla, Spanish north Africa. A few