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The Williams brothers at the World Cup: That's why they're not playing for the same country

2022-11-18T18:47:47.807Z


The Williams brothers at the World Cup: That's why they're not playing for the same country Created: 2022-11-18, 7:36 p.m By: Christoph Gschossmann Iñaki (left) and Nico Williams are going to the World Cup: the first for Ghana, the second for Spain. © IMAGO/ÃNGEL RIVERO Brothers who play for different nations in the respective national team? There are probably only a handful of them. But that'


The Williams brothers at the World Cup: That's why they're not playing for the same country

Created: 2022-11-18, 7:36 p.m

By: Christoph Gschossmann

Iñaki (left) and Nico Williams are going to the World Cup: the first for Ghana, the second for Spain.

© IMAGO/ÃNGEL RIVERO

Brothers who play for different nations in the respective national team?

There are probably only a handful of them.

But that's not the only reason why the story of Iñaki and Nico Williams is special.

Munich/Doha – Two brothers go to the World Cup – but not for the same nation.

Only 24 hours lay between their debuts for their teams: the brothers Iñaki (28) and Nico Williams (28) play together for Athletic Bilbao at the club, but at the World Cup they play for Spain (Nico) and Ghana (Iñaki).

The two national players have been since last Saturday, they made their debuts in friendlies in their countries before the 2022 World Cup.

Of course, brothers in different national jerseys were more common: Jérôme and Prince Boateng played for Germany and Ghana respectively;

Thiago plays for Spain, his brother Rafinha for Brazil;

Paul Pogba became world champion with France, his siblings Mathias and Florentin Pogba played for Guinea, the brothers Granit and Taulin Xhaka play for Switzerland and Albania respectively.

In addition, Christian and Max Vieri once held the bones for Italy and Australia.

Pogba, Werner, Wijnaldum: These stars will miss the 2022 World Cup injured

View photo gallery

Now they could meet at the World Cup.

But how did it come about that the two don't play for the same country?

The Süddeutsche Zeitung

reports on this

.

The brothers' family emigrated from Ghana in dire poverty.

In order to pass as refugees, they posed as Liberian residents at the Spanish border, who were recognized as such at the time.

At that time her mother, Maria Arthuer, who had left Accra with her husband Felix, was already seven months pregnant.

She had crossed the Sahara on foot to find a better life in Europe.

(Match schedule for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar)

Iñaki once said that his life as a professional has nothing to do with reality.

He experienced the reality as a child, when he accompanied his mother to her job as a cleaning lady, or when he had only seen his father four or five times in ten years because he was looking for work in the UK without a job.

Two brothers, two strikers - but two national teams

Both brothers are talented strikers that Athletic Bilbao soon caught the eye of.

The football and the talent of the two boys saved the family from poverty.

Iñaki scored for a club otherwise known for relying heavily on Basque players - and in February 2015 became the first black goalscorer in the club's more than 120-year history.

The World Cup in Qatar was ultimately the reason why the two brothers went their separate ways when it came to national teams.

The tournament was Iñaki's big dream, which is one of the reasons why he agreed in May this year to play for Ghana, for "the country of my parents, my blood, the values ​​that our father and mother gave us," as he says said.

Spain coach Luis Enrique said: "I like Iñaki, I like Nico a lot.

The family will be thrilled when they go to the World Cup," said Spain's coach Luis Enrique these days: "And it would be awesome if they saw each other in the final there."

(cg)

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, 32 teams will fight for the title.

All participants are fixed - the overview.

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Get your Germany jersey: We make it easy for you: Sign up for the tz World Cup newsletter to win one of three current Germany jerseys (size: L).

And that's not all: The newsletter informs you daily about all game results and stories about the World Cup!

The competition ends on December 1st.

(To the competition conditions)

Source: merkur

All sports articles on 2022-11-18

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