Nico Williams makes history by being chosen among the 15 best for the Ballon d'Or

Nico Williams' position in the Ballon d'Or is already known. The Athletic winger has been chosen in fifteenth position, right in the middle of the finalists whose names were chosen a month ago. The polls placed him in that place. In fact, a list leaked this Monday placed the red and white player right there.

The truth is that the name of the Zurigorri '10' has been slow to come out to the joy of Biscay. At five in the afternoon the X count of the award given by 'France Football' began publishing from position 29 shared by Matts Hummels and Artem Dovbyk. Then, in this order, Alejandro Grimaldo, Vitinha, Declan Rice appeared. The 25th was Cole Palmer, followed by William Saliba, Rúben Dias, Antonio Rüdiger and Bukayo Saka. The top-20 was reached and Nico still didn't get out…

Nor did it do so in the next five announced players – Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Martin Odegaard, Emiliano Martínez, Fede Valverde and Granit once the gala began, shortly before nine at night. Everything pointed to that, but just a few minutes later the bomb went off: Nico was fifteenth. It was accompanied by a video in which they announced his 11 goals and 22 assists in 49 games to win the Cup and the European Championship, in addition to a brilliant fifth place in the domestic championship, one step away from the Champions League. In both finals, La Cartuja and Olympic Berlin, he was named best player of the match.

Half a minute of highlights from the Athletic star could be seen on the social network. It started with a great goal against Atlético in the Metropolitano in the League, continued with the goal that opened the game in the final against England and ended with the celebration in the German capital with his friends Lamine Yamal and Fermín. No trace, to a surprise, of the red and white feat in the Cup. Then Athletic boasted about Nico on their networks – “This is just the beginning” – before the list continued with Ademola Lookman, Dani Olmo, Florian Wirtz and Phil Foden . Now, the top-10 would be revealed in full gala.

His choice has been overshadowed in the first place by the fact that Athletic will play the league duel in Mallorca tonight. A fact that has made it impossible for the one from Pamplona to sit in the Chatelet Theater in Paris. Neither will Unai Simón after it became known early on that it is most likely that the Alavés will not win the Lev Yashin as the best goalkeeper in the world, an award that, according to leaks, Emiliano 'El Dibu' Martínez will win for the second consecutive time. .

In any case, the election of the Ballon d'Or has been marred by controversy after Real Madrid decided not to travel to the gala after learning that Vinicius Júnior was not going to be named the best player in the world to the detriment of Rodri. None of the nominees will attend, nor will any institutional representatives. Everything indicates that the case is identical to that of Athletic, which hides itself behind the fact that it is match day. We will have to wait for the gala to begin to see if there is finally a representative from Ibaigane.

History

In any case, it is great news for Athletic that Nico and Unai are among those chosen. In fact, it is the first time that a red and white player competed for the Ballon d'Or. Nor has a Lions goalkeeper ever been among those chosen for the Lev Yashin, a trophy of very young age at birth in 2019.