{"id":847256,"date":"2026-03-24T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/847256\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:28:12","slug":"neco-williams-on-wales-icons-and-world-cup-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/847256\/","title":{"rendered":"Neco Williams on Wales icons and World Cup qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neco Williams is in awe of what came before him. The names of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy revered as everlasting icons of Welsh football.<\/b><\/p>\n

But is walking in their footsteps a gift or a curse? Living up to the soaring standards set by the aforementioned trio is an expectation Williams and his Wales colleagues have no option but to cope with.<\/p>\n

Of course, Williams is working alongside one of his heroes in Bellamy, who is currently Wales head coach.<\/p>\n

The pair face a big week. Wales face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup play-off semi-final on Thursday before a potential final against Italy or Northern Ireland next week for a place in this summer’s tournament.<\/p>\n

The shadows of Bale and Ramsey et al continue to loom large \u2013 but are they an inspiration or a burden?<\/p>\n

“A bit of both,” Williams told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“As kids, you watched the likes of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Craig Bellamy. You grew up idolising them. You wanted to be like them.<\/p>\n

“And now that they’ve retired, it’s the new generation to come in. We’re not a massive country and we don’t have loads and loads of players.<\/p>\n

“But the way we are as a team and the togetherness, I think that’s what drives us and gets us through.<\/p>\n

“Where I used to see myself as a youngster, now I’m not that youngster any more. I’m more the senior player and I need to mentor these young lads coming through. We’re a family.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to Williams, you quickly grasp the level of admiration he holds for Bellamy, who has entrusted the Nottingham Forest<\/a> full-back to be a key part of the team he hopes qualifies for a second successive World Cup.<\/p>\n

Bellamy’s rambunctious and infectious approach to his playing career made him one of the Premier League’s most effective forwards.<\/p>\n

Williams says his approach to management is just as enthralling.<\/p>\n

“How good he was as a player, he’s the exact same as a manager. He’s obsessed with football,” said Williams.<\/p>\n

“He’s just constantly talking about football. He’s obsessed with Wales and you want a manager like that.”<\/p>\n

Having qualified for World Cup 2022 through play-off wins over Austria and Ukraine, Williams knows all about what lies ahead over the next seven days.<\/p>\n

Nerves, tension and stress \u2013 but Williams insists it will all be worth it if they reach the finals in June.<\/p>\n

“It would mean everything,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been blessed enough to get to one and to get to another would be an incredible achievement.<\/p>\n

“The World Cup in Qatar – our play-offs were staggered because we played Austria the first game and then because of what was happening in Ukraine, that got pushed on to the summer.<\/p>\n

“So it felt like everything about that tournament was a little bit rushed. We were the last team to qualify. We had the last pick with basically everything – the hotels, the travel, the hotels for our family.<\/p>\n

“And when we were there, it was all was our first World Cup, so we didn’t really know what to expect.<\/p>\n

“I think we’d do better if we get to this World Cup.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neco Williams is in awe of what came before him. The names of Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-847256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116284627943218303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}