Nico Williams reveals Nahuel Molina's shove was key to the World Cup final winner

Some plays get replayed in your head a thousand times, and this is one of them. Three months after the 2026 World Cup final, Nico Williams still laughs when he tells the story of how the goal that gave Spain its second world title came together. And the best part is that the unwitting co-star of the story wasn't Spanish at all, but Argentine.

On July 19, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Spain beat Argentina to win the World Cup thanks to a goal from Ferran Torres in the 106th minute. With Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi still on the field, the real star of the sequence turned out to be the Athletic Club winger, who headed the ball into Torres's path to finish.

But the full story has a funny wrinkle: without a shove from Argentine defender Nahuel Molina, Williams swears he never would have reached that ball. It all started with a cross from Pedro Porro toward the back post, aimed at the Spanish winger, who barely managed to flick the ball toward the six-yard box before Torres arrived to finish it off.

In a conversation with Futbol Emotion, Williams walked through the play with humor and honesty. "I don't think people realized this, but, if he hadn't shoved me, I don't get there," the Athletic forward said, laughing.

According to his account, Molina (formerly of Boca and Atletico Madrid, now at Roma) caught him with both arms right as the ball was dropping, and that contact ended up being decisive in letting him reach the ball.

It's deadlyNico Williams

Williams himself walked back through the exact moment he thought he wouldn't make it to the play. "As the ball was coming, I thought, 'I'm not going to get there.' And when he shoved me, I was like, 'Damn, now I'm going to get there,'" the forward explained, making clear that his opponent's push gave him exactly the push he needed.

What happened next was more instinct than plan. With no time to shoot straight at goal, Williams chose to lay the ball back into the six-yard box. "I didn't have time to shoot on goal, so I thought, 'I'll just leave it there,' and Ferran was right there," he said.

That decision, made in a split second with unintentional help from a rival, ended up being the play that crowned Nico Williams's first World Cup title and also the first for the current generation of the Spanish national team.