Neco Williams has done the math, and it adds up to exhaustion—the good kind. The Wales and Nottingham Forest defender just completed a marathon season of 63 games across club and country, a stretch that culminated in a 1-1 friendly draw against Ghana at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday evening. At 25, Williams represents a particular breed of modern footballer: tireless, driven, and honest about the toll it takes.
"It is tiring, but this is what we get paid to do and we enjoy it as well," Williams said, his satisfaction evident despite the relentless schedule. The Wrexham-born defender's commitment tells a larger story about what it means to be indispensable at the highest levels of the sport. Forest kept him on the pitch for 53 of those games this season—a campaign in which the club not only maintained their Premier League status but also reached the Europa League semi-finals, an remarkable achievement that underscores why Williams was named Forest's player of the season.
For Williams, playing that volume of football is a kind of validation. "If I played only a couple of games then I wouldn't be happy," he explained, "but to play that amount of games means you're doing something well." The perspective is refreshingly straightforward: elite players want the ball, want the responsibility, want to be trusted in moments that matter.
That trust was on full display against Ghana. Williams provided the cross for substitute Lewis Koumas to score Wales' dramatic injury-time equaliser, a moment Williams clearly savored. Koumas, on loan at Hull City from Liverpool this season, had been waiting for his first Wales goal, and Williams took genuine pleasure in the assist. "I'm glad he's got it. I'm glad I assisted it," he said. For a player who made his senior Wales debut against Finland in September 2020, these connections with teammates represent the cumulative reward of relentless professionalism.
Yet for all the satisfaction, Williams is acutely aware of what he's earned: rest. "I'll be going straight on holiday, having a few cocktails and putting my feet up on a beach," he said with the kind of candour that comes only after months of running up and down a pitch every few days. A couple of weeks off beckons before the cycle begins again—a necessary reset before pre-season preparations commence.
The marathon isn't quite over; Wales still has a friendly in Bucharest against Romania on Saturday, which would push Williams' tally to 64 games if he plays. But the finish line is in sight. His club has already begun contract extension talks with him, recognition that his performances this season merit long-term investment. The City Ground club knows what they have in Williams: a defender willing to absorb the physical and mental demands of elite football without complaint, provided the break that follows is worth the effort. He's earned that beach, and those cocktails.