Iñaki Williams Ghanaian Footballer Born 1994 in Bilbao

Early life

Iñaki Williams Arthuer was born on 15 June 1994 in Bilbao to Ghanaian parents. Most of his childhood was spent in Pamplona, in the Rochapea district, and he played youth football for the local club CD Pamplona. Athletic Club noticed him there and brought him into its youth system at Lezama when he was eighteen. In his first season with the Juvenil A side he scored 36 goals, and the team finished as runner-up in the national youth cup.

Career

He started the 2013-14 season with Basconia, the club's farm team in the Tercera División, and scored on his senior debut. Soon afterwards he was promoted to the reserves in the Segunda División B, moving between the two squads for the rest of the campaign. In 2014-15 he began with hat-tricks against Amorebieta and Leioa, and his 13 goals in 18 matches in the first half of the season helped Bilbao Athletic go up to the Segunda División.

Williams made his first-team and La Liga debut on 6 December 2014 in a 1-0 home defeat by Córdoba. On 19 February 2015 he scored in the Europa League round of 32 against Torino, becoming the first black player to score for the club. His first league goal was a late winner at Elche on 17 May 2015. Later that month he headed a goal in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, which Athletic lost 3-1. In January 2016 he agreed a new contract through 2021, with a buyout clause of 50 million euros, and in August 2019 he signed a nine-year deal with a release clause of 135 million euros.

His consistency became one of the features of his career. On 13 January 2019 he scored twice against Sevilla in a 2-0 win, the second goal coming after a run from his own half that was later chosen as Marca's Golden Goal of the season; the match was also his 100th successive league appearance, and he was voted La Liga Player of the Month. On 1 October 2021 he set the outright record for consecutive games in Spain's top division with his 203rd, passing a mark set by Juan Antonio Larrañaga between 1986 and 1992. The run ended at 251 matches on 29 January 2023, when he was left out of the squad to face Celta de Vigo.

On 17 January 2021 he scored the winning goal in extra time of the Supercopa de España final, a 3-2 victory over Barcelona. In the 2023-24 season, after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, he came on as a substitute in the Copa del Rey quarter-final against Barcelona and scored in extra time in a 4-2 win; Athletic went on to win the trophy for the first time in 40 years. He succeeded Óscar de Marcos as captain before the 2025-26 season, becoming the first black player in the club's history to hold the role, and he played his 500th competitive match for Athletic on 14 March 2026, away to Girona.

International career

Williams was first called up by Spain at under-21 level in March 2015 and was part of the squad that finished runner-up at the 2017 European Under-21 Championship. In May 2016 he made his senior debut for Spain as a substitute in a friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in October 2018 he played for the Basque Country regional team in a 4-2 win over Venezuela.

On 5 July 2022 he announced that he would play for Ghana, the country of his parents, and he made his debut for the national side that September in a friendly against Brazil. He was included in Ghana's squad for the 2022 World Cup, where, following a Ghanaian custom linked to the weekday of his birth, he was given the name Kweku. His first goal for Ghana came on 17 November 2023 in a 1-0 World Cup qualifier against Madagascar. He also played at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and was named in the squad for the 2026 World Cup. He announced his international retirement in September 2026.

Recognition

Athletic Club's honours with Williams include the 2023-24 Copa del Rey and the 2021 Supercopa de España, along with Copa del Rey runner-up finishes in 2014-15, 2019-20 and 2020-21. Individually, he won the Marca Golden Goal for 2018-19 and was named La Liga African MVP for 2023-24 and 2024-25.