Nico Williams played with a jersey without a sponsor

Everyone loves jerseys without sponsors. Every new season, fans strongly request a version of the jersey without the logos of various sponsors to interrupt the design chosen by various brands, and apparently some players agree with them. During Athletic Club-Valencia, in the midweek round of LaLiga, a curious event occurred: Nico Williams took the field wearing the Castore jersey without the main commercial sponsor. The Spanish striker was wearing the exact same uniform as his teammates, with the only difference being the absence of the black Kutxabank logo in the center of the jersey. A mistake that was immediately noticed on social media when Williams entered the pitch from the bench in the 58th minute, and the cameras also lingered on the jersey for a long time to highlight the peculiarity. For the rest, the jersey was perfectly identical to the one worn by his teammates, with the LaLiga patch on the left sleeve, the DIGI writing on the back of the uniform, and the B2BinPay patch on the right sleeve.

The incident was resolved a few minutes after Nico Williams entered the pitch, when the Athletic warehouse workers retrieved a jersey from the storage room, this time with the sponsor properly positioned in the center of the uniform. A quick pit stop for a jersey change in the 70th minute, taking advantage of a break for substitutions, and then Williams completed the game wearing the official jersey. Obviously with long sleeves, one of the distinctive features of Nico Williams' on-field aesthetics. For the record, one of the members of the technical staff immediately noticed the anomaly, i.e. the absence of the sponsor, and asked for time to change the jersey, but coach Ernesto Valverde still wanted to make the change and immediately put Williams in. The question is how a different jersey ended up among the game kits, but Castore has shown in recent seasons to not always be reliable.

A singular incident in a season that could lead Nico Williams to definitive consecration. After winning the European Championship with Spain as a major protagonist alongside Lamine Yamal, Barcelona tried to reunite this dream duo in blaugrana, only to clash with Athletic's firm will to keep the player. And Athletic not only managed to keep Nico, rejecting any potential interest from the Premier League, but also made him the leader and symbol of the team. They entrusted him with the number 10, left vacant after Iker Muniain's departure, the captain who last April lifted the Copa del Rey (the club's first trophy in 40 years) and the player with the most appearances in the club's history (560). On the horizon, there is a historic appointment for Athletic, the Europa League final at San Mamés in Bilbao: Nico Williams hopes to be on the pitch that night, with his number 10 and the Athletic jersey. Hopefully with a sponsor this time.