We started from the bottom and look what we got! Everything happens for a reason, destiny destiny. Iaki Williams and brother Nico, for the first time in the field together. In La Liga, Athletic against Valladolid, the team whose president Ronaldo the phenomenon. A draw (ended 2-2) that smacks of victory. The one of two boys aged 26 and 18, born in Spain to parents of Ghanaian origin. Arrived in Bilbao after a long and adventurous journey.
A very high network separates the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco. With the right jump and a lot of luck you are virtually in Europe. If you are thrown back you stay in Africa. Felix e Maria Williams they managed to overcome the valley. They couldn’t stop, they couldn’t fail after crossing the Sahara desert on foot, losing sensitivity and also remedying several burns. From Accra, Ghana, the father’s country. On a holiday in Dubai with the whole family we took a trip to the desert. When we got there my mother burst into tears – said Iaki in an interview with Pais in 2019 – because she said it reminded her of everything she suffered when she was young, when she crossed the Sahara. He remembered his feet scalded by the hot sand. In Morocco the parents are stopped. So, to ensure a better future for the child that Maria already carried in her womb (Iaki), they lie: they tell the police that they are asylum seekers fleeing Liberia in war. They manage to pass, then thanks to a lawyer and Caritas they arrive in Bilbao: a coincidence that proved to be fundamental – explains the 26-year-old -. Being born in Bilbao allows me to play for Athletic. Yes, because since 2013 Iaki Williams has been scoring for Bilbao (which only tiles Basque players). Fast forward, with good basic technique, he became the first black player to score for Athletic. The current one is the seventh season in the first team, with which he added 268 appearances and 62 goals. He also made his debut in the national team in May 2016. In short, he established himself as one of the best Spanish strikers.
But he never forgets his origins. Also because the first few years in Spain were very difficult. The Basque community, humanitarian associations and the church have allowed the Williams family to find a home. The name chosen for the first child is a tribute to don Iaki Mardones, a priest from Bilbao who helped the family in the first months in Europe. But the money, despite Father Felix’s work, was never enough. One day when I was 12, I came home and there was no food. The light wasn’t working either, they had cut it out, Iaki said. Shortly after came the call from Athletic. The same club that, a few years later, registered Nico, born in 2002. The little brother to whom I am very attached: How proud I am of you, of what you have become – we read in the message he wrote on Instagram -. Step by step, no one has given you anything. Work, work and more work. What mom and dad taught us.
Always them, Felix and Maria, who are like superheroes for me and my brother. I get excited when I think of everything they have suffered to get me here, to give me a future. And that there are so many people who still suffer this same kind of fate today – he said in an interview with The Hormiguero -. When I asked my mother how they got to Spain, she told me by plane. My father then told me the real story and my hair stood on end. They have walked in the desert, they saw people die along the way, and many others ended up in prison. Today Felix and Maria are watching the result of their efforts from the stands of San Mams. Iaki and Nico football players for Athletic, two young men perfectly integrated into the Basque social fabric. They had and seized opportunities that would hardly have come to Ghana. Now, together, they watch their dream of normalcy come true.
April 30, 2021 (change April 30, 2021 | 11:09 am)
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