Ghanaian-born Spanish international, Nico Williams, has shared his family’s remarkable migration from Ghana to Europe, highlighting how his father’s sacrifices, including work as a maintenance electrician at Stamford Bridge, shaped his personal and professional growth.

Spain’s Euro 2024-winning winger, a 23-year-old from Athletic Bilbao, attributes his distinctive qualities to the resilience instilled by his parents.

“From a young age, I learnt what suffering is. I learned how to share values that other people don’t have. Thanks to my parents, I have them. I’ve never lacked anything because they’ve always been there for me,” Nico told FourFourTwo.

Nico was born in Bilbao in 2002, eight years after his brother Iñaki, following their parents’ difficult migration from Ghana. To reach the Spanish territory of Melilla, they traveled 2,000 miles across the Sahara Desert, often without shoes and in intense heat. Not everyone survived the journey.

The family was initially detained but managed to reach Bilbao with a lawyer’s help, who stated they were from war-torn Liberia. When they arrived, a local man named Inaki supported them. Soon after Iñaki’s birth, the family began building a new life.

The Williams family showed resilience in London, where their father worked before his job at Stamford Bridge.

“This is quite the odd narrative,” Nico acknowledged. He was there, and my dad worked as a maintenance electrician and in similar jobs.

Both brothers are now prominent players for Athletic Bilbao, and Nico has won a European championship with Spain. Their journey from the Sahara to global football success is truly astonishing.