The long journey of the parents of the Williams brothers, the Panthers of Bilbao

Iñaki was born in 1994 at Basurto Hospital. His parents had been in Spain for a few weeks, but they did not hesitate to baptize him with such a Basque name, that of Iñaki Mardones, the chaplain who took care of them. The path they started fleeing poverty in Ghana led them to cross the Sahara, lose the little money they had, end up in a refugee camp in the Maghreb and jump the fence in Melilla, where Caritas took over. young couple with the seven-month pregnant Comfort. After a few days in Malaga, they were taken on a train that never seemed to end, to the Abando station in Bilbao, where Iñaki Mardones was waiting for them. “Because I spoke English, they put me with them. They spent the first few days in a boarding house and then in a Caritas flat,” Mardones recalled talking to Cope. Because they had no residency papers, different doctors helped Comfort during her pregnancy outside of her work hours, as a personal favor. “We found people who helped us a lot, especially Iñaki, who has always been in touch. He was always on our side,” says Comfort. That is why the boy was baptized as Iñaki. And in 1994 it was not as normal as seeing a black child in Bilbao. And less with that name. “It simply came to our notice then. It’s normal now, but not so much then “, explained Iñaki, who has been daring to make the first statements in Basque, a language he learned thanks to the Athletic Foundation.

An Athletic fan in Pamplona

His passion for Athletic, however, was Mardones. He was the one who gave the first Athletic shirt to little Iñaki. And who helped them find work, first on a pig farm in Sesma. And then to Pamplona. But little Iñaki was already destined not to become Osasuna, as Iñaki Mardones had brought him a second Athetic kit as a gift when the first one was too small for him. There is a photo with this second shirt, with his mother, in the modest flat in Pamplona where they lived. Nicolás, Nico, was born in the Navarrese capital and recently explained that “I was also from Athletic because my brother was”. The children were dressed as Athletic in the Rochapea district, where those who were not from Osasuna were from Madrid or Barça. Both were destined to return to Bilbao.

Athletic discovered Iñaki at CD Pamplona and took him to Bilbao in 2012. Two years later, Nico would also be signed by Athletic, after a year at Osasuna. These were difficult years, as in 2006 his father decided to go and look for work in London, where he would work as a waiter and bricklayer, to send the money to his family, who were still in Pamplona. In fact, when they left Ghana, their idea was to get to the UK, as they came from a former British colony and spoke English and thought it would be easier. They stayed in the Basque Country. “If you look at everything our parents have done for us, you have to admire them,” Iñaki explained during an event in Bilbao of the club’s foundation. “I always watched the news of the pastries, of the refugees … and asked my mother how they had arrived. And she told me that by plane. Until one day, when I was quite old, I told her I didn’t believe her. “I wanted to know everything. And it was very strong to know that they had been detained, that they had been in refugee camps.” Once Iñaki signed his first professional contract, Felix was able to return from London. And together, they returned to Bilbao, where Iñaki Mardones was no longer there, who had stopped being a chaplain to marry a Cameroonian woman he had met receiving immigrants arriving in search of a new life. The life the Williams have found in Bilbao.

Iñaki, 27, is already an idol in Bilbao. In the Lions team, he is the Black Panther. He has already been captain and set a new record for consecutive games playing at least one minute in the Spanish league, with more than 200 games without missing a single second. Nico, 19, has made his strong debut. And when, after losing the Super Cup final against Madrid, he won the runner-up medal, it was his older brother who told him to put it back on. That being runner-up is not a shame when so many people don’t even make it to the finals. That he was able to score the winning goal in the semifinals, against Athletic, in front of his parents, who were in the stands, is a victory. Before the pandemic, they both went to Ghana to meet relatives, looking for their parents’ roots. After a few crazy years as a young man, Iñaki has put his career in order. Help foundations and try to give the best advice to Nico. Now the lions have the backing of two panthers. And Felix and Maria, excited, dream of seeing them lift the King’s Cup. They have already understood that in Bilbao it is the dream of almost everyone.