At Bayern, Nico Williams was surprised after the contract extension of the transfer destination. According to his own statement, sports director Max Eberl had long since written off a move to Munich. The reason: the Spaniard’s salary.
The contract extension of Nico Williams at Athletic Bilbao “no longer” affected FC Bayern, Max Eberl clarified before the kick-off of his FC Bayern against PSG at the club World Cup on Saturday at “DAZN”. A transfer was initially targeted on the part of FC Bayern, but was then quickly laid.
“Of course, the sporting management with Christoph Freund has clarified whether a player like Nico Williams is possible,” said the sports director: “But when we heard the salary claim to speak to the player at all, Bayern Munich resigned very quickly.”
How much the Spanish European champion wanted was not revealed. However, Williams may have a sum in the region around ten million euros net – according to the transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, he should earn at the Basques at least from now on. His exit clause, which is valid from 2026, is expected to be 100 million euros in the future.
Hoeneß: Flick was also very surprised
Bayern Munich’s CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen had already described the new ten-year contract the day before on the edge of the club World Cup as a “statement”. “They have their own laws there,” said Dreesen about the Basque first division club Bilbao: “In addition, his brother also plays there. And if I read everything in Germany, he was no longer in the discussion with us, but practically at FC Barcelona. In this respect, this is actually no question for us.”
Supervisory Board member Uli Hoeneß also commented on the player. According to the Bayern patron, Barcelona coach Hansi Flick was also very surprised at the extension of Nico Williams, “because they had more or less already a promise”.