On April 20, 2016, Iñaki Williams replaced Iker Muniain in an (unsuccessful) attempt by Ernesto Valverde to score a goal that prevented Atlético de Madrid's victory at San Mamés by 0-1. That day, the Bilbao forward had been a substitute for a new muscle injury, the fourth of that season. Williams began to bear the burden of being a muscularly fragile footballer, highly exposed to injuries from his explosive football.

Today, exactly four years later, those performances sound like a joke. Athletic has since played 146 league games and Williams has been in all of them. 126 times he has been a starter and 20 substitute, scoring a total of 31 goals. An extraordinary streak that takes on greater merit if one takes into account that the rojiblanco club has had four different coaches in this period: Gaizka Garitano , Eduardo Berizzo , José Ángel Ziganda and the aforementioned Valverde.

In four years, in short, Williams has not suffered any relevant injury, has never been sent off, has not seen five yellow cards in the same league and has always had the confidence of his coaches. He has not even entered league rotations due to accumulation of matches, since he has only been absent three times in the Cup (Racing, Formentera and Seville) and once in the Europa League (Dinamo Bucharest) at this time.

The goalkeepers' site

Of course, Williams' is the most important record of all those in force in Spain, also including goalkeepers, who tend to enjoy a more stable continuity. According to the data collected by Athletic, the striker is the eighth best record of all time and the best in the history of the rojiblanco club after beating Andoni Cedrún , who until this season held it with 132 consecutive games.

Ahead of Williams are still Juan Antonio Ortega (150), Alberto López (151), Juan Antonio Ipiña (165), Alfredo di Stéfano (171), Andoni Zubizarreta (184), Luis María Arconada (188) and Juan Antonio Larrañaga (202). To reach the historic center of Real Sociedad, Williams would have to keep his streak intact until well into the 2021/22 season, a mammoth challenge that even goes against common sense.

But it was also important to play 146 games in a row, four years without failure, and there is Williams, waiting for football to bring us normality (and vice versa) to continue building an improper record of our times.

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  • Racing de Santander
  • Real society
  • Ernesto Valverde
  • Atlético de Madrid
  • sports
  • soccer
  • Athletic de Bilbao

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