2022 World Cup: Williams brothers set to split family loyalties
Ghana and Spain have never played against each other at the senior level. There is a small chance that they will meet at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Spain, unless the unpredictable nature of football brings them together in Qatar.
Most football experts don’t think the Black Stars will get past the group stage, while the team that won the World Cup in 2010 is one of the favorites to win the tournament.
If there is even a small chance that the two countries will meet along the way, Ghana could break up another family just like it did with the Boateng family during the 2010 and 2014 World Cups in South Africa and Brazil.
Forwards Inaki Williams and Nico Williams of Athletic Bilbao have decided to play for two different countries. This means that their futures will be different.
And if Nico makes Luis Enrique’s World Cup team and Inaki is picked by Ghana’s coach Otto Addo, which seems likely, then the family will be rooting for two different countries to win the FIFA World Cup.
Inaki vs Brazil
Iaki Williams played his first game for Ghana on September 23, a friendly against Brazil.
Inaki made his second appearance for Ghana last month, when they beat Nicaragua 1-0 in an international friendly at the Estadio Francisco Artes Carrasco in the Spanish city of Lorca. On the same day, Nico made his first appearance for Spain as a senior player on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, in Portugal.
Inaki, who is now 28 years old, was born in the Spanish city of Bilbao to Ghanaian parents. He played for Spain’s youth teams and made his only appearance for “La Roja” in a friendly match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Six years later, after turning down offers to play for Ghana in the past, Inaki decided to commit his international future to the Black Stars, which means he has a good chance of playing at the World Cup in 2022.
Inaki had said before that joining the Black Stars would make it look like he was taking someone else’s place on the team, someone for whom it would mean everything. Today, he is older and wiser enough to realize that he is more likely to play in the World Cup for the country where he was born than for Spain.
Inaki says to ESPN, “I had to make a choice.” “It was hard to decide what to do. I had a lot of doubts, and this may have closed other doors, but that’s football. It’s just how life is.”
Nico, on the other hand, chose to play for Spain. He started out in the youth teams and worked his way up to Luis Enrique’s squad for the UEFA Nations League group stages, where he made two appearances and helped lvaro Morata score against Portugal. This was enough for him to make a case for a spot in the World Cup team.
If they meet in Spain, it would be an emotional rivalry like when the Boateng brothers, Kevin-Prince and Jerome, were on opposite sides of the field when Ghana and Germany played in group games at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and again four years later in Brazil, with Kevin-Prince playing for Ghana and Jerome leading a strong German defense.
The Williams brothers look like they are really looking forward to that match in Qatar.
Nico thinks he and his older brother chose to play for different countries after giving it some thought.
“It was a natural choice, and everyone took their own path and made a careful choice,” he said.
“I’m glad my brother is in Ghana. I hope everything goes well for him and that he has a great World Cup and reaches the highest goals.”
Nico Williams has decided to stay in Sapin, his home country, for the rest of his career.
Spain’s manager, Enrique, is aware of how exciting it is to see another sibling rivalry, but his main focus is on his games against Costa Rica, Japan, and Germany in Group E.
He said that putting Nico on his team wasn’t a way to stop him from following in his brother’s footsteps. This was in response to rumors that Nico might change his nationality after he and his brother went on vacation to Ghana last June.
He told The Guardian, “I’m not trying to stop him from going with Ghana. He’s young and a very interesting player.”
“He plays with Athletic more often now. He’s making great progress. I like him enormously. We’ve been keeping an eye on him since he was on the junior team.
“I think the family will be happy. Just think of the party if they both get to go to the World Cup. And if they make it to the final, that would be the business. “It will be hard for the parents of Nico and Inaki to choose who they want to win,” said Enrique.
For now, the two brothers will continue to play together for Athletic Bilbao. Last month, they both scored for the first time in the same game, a 3-2 win over Rayo Vallecano. But when La Liga takes a break at the beginning of next month, the two brothers will go in different directions, which is likely to cause a rift in their family.