‘Playing with Inaki in the first team was a little strange, because we’d always played together in the park, and then we were playing in a big stadium like San Mames’ Nico Williams on what it’s like to play alongside his brother

Football history has plenty of examples of brothers who have reached the pinnacle of the sport.

The Charlton brothers were teammates when England won the World Cup in 1966, while the Neville brothers starred for both the Three Lions and Manchester United. Yaya and Kolo Toure are both Premier League winners, while the De Boer and Laudrup brothers lit up Europe back in the day.

Perhaps the most notable contemporary footballing siblings are the Williams brothers, with Inaki and his younger brother Nico key players for Athletic Bilbao.

Nico Williams on playing alongside his brother at Athletic

“My brother was in the first team, and he really pushed me to try to become a footballer too,” Nico tells FourFourTwo about following his Inaki’s footsteps for the Basque club.

“The most important advice he gave me was to use my left foot. I was really bad with my left foot from a young age, and it’s not exactly my brother’s strong point either, so he wanted me to learn from the flaws in his game, so that it would become natural for me.

“Playing with him in the first team was a little strange, because we had always played together in the park, and then I was playing with him in a stadium as big as San Mames, in a top-flight league like La Liga.

“But I was proud.”

Nico would also follow in his brother’s footsteps when his first La Liga goal in a victory against Elche in September 2022 - seven years after Inaki netted his debut strike against the same opponents.

The younger brother had to wait 41 matches for his maiden goal to come – that it came with his left foot showed the value of his brother’s advice.

“That goal was a turning point,” he says. “I wasn’t making the most of my qualities, and that match made me think about what I had to do, what I could exploit.

“It was dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, then I hit it into the top corner.

“That goal was unforgettable – it was what woke me up and made me more ambitious.”