They told their children that they had come by plane. They told the police they came from Liberia. But it wasn’t true: neither the first nor the second. Comfort and Félix, originally from Ghana and parents of the brothers Iñaki y Nico Williams, they met in a refugee camp and crossed the desert on foot, between a scorching sky and a scorching ground: they still have marks on their feet. They were scammed and had to drink their urine to survive and left dead bodies behind. And they jumped over the Melilla fence. Once on European soil They tore up his Ghanaian documents, following the advice of a lawyer: he told them that the only option to be able to request asylum and not be deported was to say that they came from a country at war. That’s why they told the police that they came from Liberia.
From Melilla They arrived in Bilbao by train. It was a day at the end of April 1994. At the station I was waiting for them. Iñaki Mardones, a Caritas volunteer who was finishing his Theology studies. He was 25 years old. He has the image of Comfort-, María after his arrival in Spain- and Félix on the platform, next to his suitcases. “I remember seeing uncertainty and even fear on their faces”, he relates. The three of them walked together towards a boarding house, in silence. “I just thought: ‘Joe“Imagine that you had to live through that situation.”, he emphasizes. It was his first reception of this type. He will never forget her. Comfort was seven months pregnant. She had jumped the fence in Melilla pregnant without knowing it.
In a foster home
He was also the one who took them to a shelter. He was on that floor, for a routine visit, on Wednesday, June 15, 1994. Comfort began to notice contractions and they took a taxi to the hospital: Comfort and Félix behind and he in front. He paid for the taxi. “The moment the three of them met was a great moment”, sighs without knowing how to find the words to define it. After a few days they asked him if they could name him Iñaki, for him. “It was a great honor. A great joy. 30 years later I still feel that it is the greatest gift they have given me in my life”he says, excited, from Bilbao.
After a few months, in the fall of 1994, Iñaki, already ordained deacon, baptized Iñaki. He was the one who gave him his first t-shirt of the Athletic ClubKappa brand. When she outgrew it, she gave him the second one. The family had already moved to Sesma, a small Navarrese town where her father worked on a pig farm. Later they would settle in Pamplona and then the father would go alone to London to look for work. Comfort worked on everything, anything. Nico, the second child of the couple, was born in Pamplona
Iñaki’s tracksuit from his first club, Club Natación Pamplona, was bought by his coach, Javier Serrano. “I was a student and there wasn’t much money, but I had to pay for a tracksuit”dice. “He had that sadness inside of thinking that he could get lost because he was always on the street with older people. He had no examples at home. Because his father was in England and his mother was working all day”, he assures. He remembers that more than once he went with him and his friends. One day he accompanied them to an amateur tournament: he was not even 10 years old and they were over 20. “Deep down he saw us as his family”, Add. One day they were playing the final of the Navarra Championship against Osasuna and Serrano had to pick him up at home: “I couldn’t find it and I walked through a park until I found it”. They went to look for him to take him to training and they brought him back: “If one didn’t go, another went. At first there were days when no one could go and they didn’t come”.
“Adoptive parents”
Mario Velaz, coach of Club Deportivo Pamplona, Iñaki and Nico’s second club, took Nico in his gray Renault Scenic every day he trained, back and forth. Nico shared a team with his son Álvaro. “The friendship was tremendous and the relationship was very intense. Nico was always at home. He stayed for lunch, dinner, and sleep. The other parents told us that we were the adoptive parents. He was with us all day”he states. “He was always happy, with a smile. Except when we watched scary movies at home. He shit himself. He was very scared”, smile. One summer he even had to go with his family on vacation to Mojácar (Almería), but he just signed for Osasuna. His son never went to Nico’s house, at most once. Iñaki has recalled in interviews the feeling of arriving home and there being no water, food or electricity.
Neither at the Pamplona Swimming Club nor at the Pamplona Sports Club do they remember seeing the parents at the games. Maybe once or twice a year: they worked. The president of the Pamplona Sports Club, Manolo Larumbe, says that when he asked the children what they wanted to be when they grew up, Iñaki always said First class footballer: not a firefighter or police officer like the other children. At 14 years old he promised his mother that he would be a soccer player. And the two brothers have achieved it. Not only have they achieved it, but they have become two of LaLiga’s stars. Nico will play this summer’s Euro Cup with Spain and Iñaki played this winter’s Africa Cup with Ghana. He became nationalized to honor his roots.
Both will play the final of the Copa del Rey, after eliminating Atlético de Madrid with a goal from each. Iñaki scored from a pass from Nico and Nico scored from a pass from Iñaki. And at some point in Bilbao, a religious man, Iñaki Mardones, shouted and celebrated the two goals. “Every time I hear Iñaki mentioned, I experience it with a very special emotion. Just yesterday I told the story to a community of sisters. They are a reference because of their history and because many people can see themselves reflected and identified with them”he emphasizes with joy.
2024-03-09 12:47:20
#Williams #brothers #pride #Athletic #Provincia
