NICO WILLIAMS: FIGHTING RACISM IS MY LIFE’S MISSION

img

Spain forward Nico Williams has made it clear that fighting racism is not just a challenge for the world of soccer but a deeply personal mission. The Athletic Bilbao star, along with Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr., has been at the center of multiple incidents of racial abuse in Spanish soccer, sparking renewed calls for action.

Williams, who expe­ri­enced racial abuse first­hand dur­ing a match against Atleti­co Madrid last sea­son, saw the Span­ish Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (RFEF) respond by par­tial­ly clos­ing Atleti­co’s south stand for two match­es. But for Williams, this is just the begin­ning of a much larg­er bat­tle.

“My broth­er Ina­ki and I, as Black men, have a crit­i­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty in this life: to fight against racism,” Williams told Span­ish news­pa­per El Mun­do. “This is my num­ber one goal. As a pub­lic fig­ure, I have a duty to con­tribute to that fight, and I must stay ground­ed and focused to do so.”

The issue of racism in Span­ish soc­cer has drawn wide­spread atten­tion, with Brazil­ian star Vini­cius Jr. call­ing for Spain to lose its right to host the 2030 World Cup unless sig­nif­i­cant strides are made in tack­ling racism. These inci­dents have spurred the RFEF and LaLi­ga to launch mul­ti­ple anti-racism ini­tia­tives.

Progress has been made in the legal are­na as well. In June, the Mag­is­trate’s Court of Valen­cia deliv­ered the first-ever con­vic­tion for racist insults in a soc­cer sta­di­um in Spain. More recent­ly, a Mal­lor­ca fan received a 12-month sus­pend­ed prison sen­tence for racial­ly abus­ing Vini­cius and Villarreal’s Samuel Chuk­wueze. In a sep­a­rate case, a minor who racial­ly insult­ed Real Madrid’s Aure­lien Tchoua­meni was banned from sta­di­ums for a year and fined.

The fight against racism in Span­ish soc­cer has also led to sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic reac­tions. In April, TV ana­lyst Ger­man Bur­gos was fired from Movis­tar Plus+ after com­ments about Barcelon­a’s Lamine Yamal were deemed racist.

Despite the chal­lenges, Williams remains opti­mistic. “Spain is mak­ing progress, and we must keep mov­ing for­ward. It’s encour­ag­ing to see the strides being made,” the 22-year-old said. “There will always be those who push a neg­a­tive image of immi­grants, but they are a minor­i­ty.”

Williams, who played a key role in Spain’s tri­umph at this year’s Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship, rep­re­sents a mul­ti­cul­tur­al Spain. Born to Ghana­ian par­ents, he empha­sizes the impor­tance of rec­og­niz­ing the con­tri­bu­tions of immi­grants and their fam­i­lies.

“Many peo­ple come to Spain to build a future they couldn’t have in their home coun­tries, to pro­vide a bet­ter life for their chil­dren,” Williams explained. “My fam­i­ly made that jour­ney, and I will do every­thing in my pow­er to make sure oth­ers can have a bet­ter life too.”