Non-stop for four years

“Four years ago today… Iñaki Williams began to play matches in LaLiga and has not stopped since”. This is how we could sum up such an outstanding achievement. The player from Bilbao has never missed a league fixture with Athletic since their match against Atlético Madrid in the 2015-16 season, on April 20. Has he appeared in 146 consecutive matches within the space of five seasons, having played 11.177  minutes.

He was more than settled in LaLiga after his debut in December 2014 against Córdoba, so he was given minutes in the last 16 fixtures of the second half of the 2014/2015 campaign. Soon was to come the beginning of his current run, by the end of the following season (matchweek 34). Two league matches before (matchweek 32), after giving Athletic the victory at San Mamés with his only goal, he tore his left thigh muscle and was not able to travel to Málaga. And that is the last time he has missed a league match.

Iñaki Williams has appeared in all LaLiga matches with the red-and-white side since then, a period that includes five different seasons: the end of the 2016/16 campaign, the three whole seasons that followed, and what has been played of the current one. Four years, 146 matches, 11.177 minutes. We must point out he played 69 complete games, from beginning to end, and Atlético Madrid and Real Sociedad are the opponents he has managed to handle better in the course of his streak, scoring four goals against each.

A HISTORIC RUN
At the end of last November, Iñaki Williams broke the record of the most consecutive matches played by an Athletic footballer. San Mamés was witness to this feat and celebrated it by paying an affectionate tribute to Carmelo Cedrún, who had held the record until then (132) -we reported it in our article ‘Carmelo and Williams, two titans on a streak’.

However, the footballer from Bilbao has kept making his ascent and he is now the eighth player with the longest run of consecutive matches played in LaLiga, and his is the only ongoing one. In case the current season could be finished and he appeared in all the remaining games, eleven fixtures to go, he would leave behind the records of two of his competitors (Juan Antonio Ortega and Alberto López). In such a case, he would find the names of stars such as Di Estéfano, Zubizarreta, Arconada, or Larrañaga (with 202 matches in a row) ahead of him.

1. 1. Jon Andoni Larrañaga – 202
2. 2. Luis Miguel Arconada – 188
3. 3. Andoni Zubizarreta – 184
4. 4. Alfredo Di Estéfano – 171
5. 5.Juan Antonio Ipiña – 165
6. 6. Alberto López – 151
7. 7. Juan Antonio Ortega – 150
8. 8. Iñaki Williams – 146
9. 13. Carmelo Cedrún – 132