Europa League: Rangers v Athletic Bilbao – Nico Williams is key man

When Nico Williams led England a merry dance on a balmy summer’s night in Berlin last July, it capped the season of his dreams. Now he is determined to do similar damage to Rangers and keep Athletic Bilbao on course for their first European trophy.

In the space of 100 days, Williams produced two showpiece man-of-the-match performances.

First, he helped end Bilbao’s four-decade wait for silverware, then he opened the scoring for Spain in the German capital as his country won their fourth European Championship title.

Fans and the game’s biggest clubs across the continent gazed lovingly at this football maverick, who exploded onto the scene a few seasons ago but whose stock has risen 10-fold in the past 12 months.

That ascent began with his role in winning last year’s Copa Del Rey, Athletic Club’s first success since a league and cup double in 1984.

Born in Pamplona, Williams regularly acknowledges the life he has been afforded came despite his parents’ struggles in Ghana before they fled for Spain.

After placing his Euro 2024 winners’ medal round his mother’s neck, he said: “I run fast, but not as fast as my mother. She escaped death and crossed the Sahara from Ghana to Spain. I gave her my medal because she deserves it more.”

It seems that the humble Williams will have his pick when it comes to his next club, with Arsenal the latest to be heavily linked with his services.

Not that he is in a rush to leave Bilbao. They are his club.

“I was the first one to cry, you can’t even imagine what this feels like,” he said after their historic Spanish Cup win against Mallorca in Seville’s Cartuja.

“It’s a dream to win with the club of my life,” he said.

For the club it was monumental, coming after no fewer than seven straight cup final defeats, including in the 2012 Europa League.

The coronavirus pandemic meant they wrote unwanted history in 2021, losing two Copa del Rey finals in the space of two weeks to Basque rivals Real Sociedad and then Barcelona.