TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals agreed to terms on a one-year contract with veteran wideout Michael Crabtree, the team announced Wednesday night, after releasing fifth-year receiver Kevin White earlier in the day.

Crabtree had worked out for the team two weeks ago but the sides didn't reach an agreement.

Crabtree, 31, made 54 catches (his fewest in a full season since his 2009 rookie year) for 607 yards receiving and three touchdowns last season for the Baltimore Ravens. He also led the NFL with eight dropped passes last season.

The 10th overall pick of the 2009 draft, Crabtree played his first nine seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders. His 28 touchdown catches are the seventh most in the NFL since 2015.

White had recovered from a hamstring injury that forced him to miss about a week of training camp before he was cut. He was signed to a one-year contract in March with hopes that he'd stay healthy enough to showcase his ability, something he was unable to do in four seasons with the Chicago Bears, who drafted him No. 7 overall out of West Virginia in 2015.

White, 27, fractured his left leg in both 2015 and 2016, and his shoulder in 2017.

He described the past four seasons as "very frustrating" but looked at the Cardinals' opportunity as a "fresh start" to "show what I got."

Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, who coached against White in college and is close with the receiver's college coach, Dana Holgorsen, was optimistic White could overcome his injury history and was pleased with his work ethic during training camp. But the constant with White was the uncertainty that he'd stay healthy.

"He had some unfortunate injuries there in Chicago and trying to kind of reestablish himself, really kind of like his rookie year," Kingsbury said earlier this year.

White was unable to do that.

White played in just 14 games in four seasons with the Bears, the third-fewest by any player drafted in the top 10 from 1970 to 2015, White's draft year, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. White's production in his first four seasons was the worst among wide receivers, tight ends and running backs drafted in the top 10 during their first four seasons from 2001 through 2015, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

His 14 career games, 25 career catches and 285 career receiving yards were the fewest among those categories over that stretch. His zero receiving touchdowns tied with the late Cedric Benson and Cadillac Williams.

ESPN's Jamison Hensley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Los Angeles Angels rookie starter Griffin Canning is headed back to the injured list with inflammation in his right elbow, the second time this month the injury has sidelined the 23-year-old right-hander.

The Angels will put Canning back on the 10-day IL just three weeks after the same issue landed the 2017 second-round pick out of UCLA on the shelf.

The move also comes just three days after Canning had perhaps the best start of his career, going seven innings and allowing just one run in leading the Angels to a 9-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Manager Brad Ausmus told reporters it's still too early to determine if Canning will be shut down for the rest of the season.

Canning is 5-6 with a 4.58 ERA in 17 starts and one relief appearance. He has 96 strikeouts through his first 18 major league games, second in Angels history behind Jered Weaver, who had 100.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs reliever Brandon Morrow was shut down for the season Wednesday because of lingering elbow problems, essentially ending his two-year stint with the team.

Morrow, 35, has been out since last year's All-Star break after signing a two-year, $21 million deal before the 2018 season. His most recent comeback attempt looked promising, but the right-hander never got to the point of a rehab assignment.

"We had that brief respite where we thought it might have a chance, but otherwise, it just didn't seem like he could get over the hump," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Wednesday afternoon.

Morrow has undergone several procedures on his elbow over the past 13 months, including a recent hydrodissection (nerve decompression), which gave him some hope for a return this season.

"With the way I'm feeling, I expect to progress quickly," Morrow told ESPN via text earlier this month.

But another setback prevented any progress past the stage of throwing at the Cubs' spring facility in Arizona, where he has been rehabbing since February.

"He worked really hard in an attempt to come back and tried a lot of different techniques and procedures and just wasn't able to get over the hump," team president Theo Epstein said.

Morrow has had a career marked by injury, but when healthy, he has been very good. He pitched in all seven games of the 2017 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers before signing with the Cubs after the season. In June 2018, he was used by the Cubs in three consecutive games, potentially leading to his lingering issues.

"Maybe we should have had even more conservative guidelines for him or maybe there was nothing we could do," Epstein said. "It's impossible to say.

"He has a significant injury history, which makes it a calculated risk. When you sign someone like that, you know you're going to get quality when he's out there but there's a risk of not getting the quantity."

Morrow saved 22 of 24 games in the first half of 2018, but that's all the Cubs got for their $21 million. They have a team option for $12 million for 2020, but that's very unlikely to be picked up. They signed Craig Kimbrel to a three-year deal in June, and he has taken over as the Cubs' closer.

"We feel bad for him," Epstein said of Morrow. "We feel bad for us that he wasn't able to contribute this year."

Maddon added: "I don't know if he has any plans to do this again. For him and his family, I wish him nothing but the best."

HOUSTON -- Justin Verlander pitched a two-hitter and lost, allowing homers to John Hicks and Ronny Rodriguez, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros 2-1 on Wednesday night in a historic upset.

With Verlander on the mound at home against the team with the majors' worst record, the Tigers (38-86) closed as +435 underdogs at Caesars Sportsbook, making their win against the Astros (81-47) the largest upset in a major league game in the past 15 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Caesars also saw the Astros close as -560 favorites, making them the heaviest favorite in a game in at least the past 15 seasons, according to sports betting database BetLabsSports.com, and likely longer.

Roxy Roxborough, a longtime oddsmaker and bettor, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that he remembered a few -500 favorites in years past involving pitchers such as Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, but not many.

Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers were -485 favorites over the Atlanta Braves in 2016, and earlier this month, the Astros were -460 road favorites over the Baltimore Orioles. Houston lost that game 8-7 in what was, before Wednesday, the largest upset since the Washington Nationals beat the Minnesota Twins as +395 underdogs in 2007.

Verlander (15-5) retired the first 14 batters Wednesday night, with six strikeouts, before Rodriguez homered to the seats in right with two outs in the fifth. Verlander sat down another 10 straight before Hicks led off the ninth with a tiebreaking blast to left-center field.

Verlander, who spent 13 seasons with the Tigers, walked none and finished with 11 strikeouts in his 99-pitch gem, extending his franchise record of games with 10 or more strikeouts to seven as he lost for the first time since June 18.

He leads the majors in strikeouts with 239 but ranks second in homers allowed with 33.

Robinson Chirinos belted his 14th homer, to left-center, on Tyler Alexander's first pitch of the seventh to tie it at 1. Chirinos finished with four hits. Needing a triple for the cycle, he doubled with two out in the ninth but was thrown out trying to reach third to end the game.

Opener Daniel Norris allowed two hits in three innings for Detroit. Alexander worked four innings, Buck Farmer (5-4) walked one in a scoreless eighth and Joe Jimenez finished the Tigers' six-hitter for his fourth save.

Jose Altuve walked with one out in the eighth, but was erased when he tried to go first to third on an infield grounder by Alex Bregman to end the inning.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Astros: RHP Josh James (shoulder soreness) will begin a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Round Rock on Thursday night. Manager AJ Hinch said James, who has been out since July 23, likely won't rejoin the team until September. ... INF Aledmys Diaz took batting practice Wednesday and could come off the injured list early next week. Diaz was hospitalized Saturday after experiencing dizziness on the team bus in Oakland, California.

UP NEXT

Tigers: RHP Jordan Zimmermann (1-8, 6.66 ERA) is scheduled to start for Detroit when the series wraps up Thursday night. Zimmerman allowed just one hit in five scoreless innings in his previous start, against Tampa Bay, but did not factor in the decision.

Astros: RHP Gerrit Cole (14-5, 2.87) will start Thursday after being scratched from his previous start, last Thursday, because of discomfort in his right hamstring. Cole, who ranks second in the majors with 226 strikeouts, has won his past 10 decisions.

ESPN's David Purdum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LEBANON, Ohio – California native Kody Swanson will team with former IMSA and Indy Lights driver Brad Jaeger to challenge Daytona Int’l Speedway during the Classic 24 Hours of Daytona on Nov. 13-17.

Swanson is a three-time winner of the prestigious Little 500 sprint car race at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway and a four-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion.

The talented race driver and scholar has more wins than anyone in the history of USAC Silver Crown racing, with 28 and counting. He has dominated the discipline, which touts past champions such as A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Tony Stewart, over the past five years.

“This is such a unique opportunity for me and one I didn’t necessarily see coming,” noted Swanson. “I know that I have a lot to learn, but I am excited about the chance to work with Brad, Kevin (Doran) and the team. I will gain as much experience as I can in a new form of motorsports. I am so grateful for this opportunity.”

“I always look forward to racing at Daytona. This year running the Doran Ford GT2 car with Brad Jaeger and Kody Swanson is going to be exciting,” said Doran Enterprises owner Kevin Doran. “We believe that after a few laps, Kody will adapt to a totally different feel in a race car. We are confident, with the skills that Kody has shown in open wheel USAC cars, he will impress during the Classic 24.”

Jaeger has led laps in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, is a past champion in the Pacific Formula 2000 and had set track records at multiple tracks, including Sebring Int’l Raceway.

Doran is well known and highly respected in the road racing community, engineering cars that have won at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

SUN PEAKS, British Columbia – Jason White has been away from the race track for the last few weeks, but he’s been busy with his next big project.

This weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, White will return to action in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, driving the No. 34 Powder Ventures Excavating/YourGMCTruckStore.com Chevrolet for Reaume Brothers Racing.

The last 12 months have been quite a ride in a variety of machines for White. After making his debut in the truck series last year on this same weekend, he’s raced the high-banks at Daytona International Speedway in his first ARCA Series event, competed in his 100thNASCAR Pinty’s Series race and now returns to the Truck Series at CTMP.

“It’s hard to believe what we’ve done over the last year,” said White. “I feel so much more confident in my own ability after some seat time in these trucks and racing against some really good drivers.  I can’t wait to get back at it this weekend.”

Having the familiarity of working with the team at Reaume Brothers Racing also has White eager to return on the track.

“We had such a good chemistry last year right away,” said White. “Josh Reaume has a great operation and I’ll have Doug George back again as my crew chief, so I’m super pumped to get going.”

During the race a year ago White showed plenty of speed, and feels that experience sets the team up for better results this weekend.

“Having that one under our belt, knowing the procedures better, which are a little different than I’ve been used to, I won’t be making a rookie mistake of speeding on pit road this time,” explained White. “Our goal is a top-15 finish, and if things fall our way, we could find ourselves in the top 10. No doubt about it.”

Once again, this year White has partnered with long time friend and business partner Rob Zimmer and the Zimmer Weaton Group in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

“It’s great to have Rob and everyone back again this year; you couldn’t ask for better partners and people.”

Red Star Belgrade's Champions League qualifying odyssey continued on Wednesday when the former European champions drew 2-2 away to Young Boys after being pegged back by a late penalty in the first leg of the playoff round tie.

Russian side Krasnodar, who eliminated former European champions Porto in the last round, were thumped 4-0 at Olympiakos while Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb beat Norway's Rosenborg 2-0 in ties which will earn the winners a place in the lucrative group stage.

- When is the Champions League group-stage draw?

In a gripping match, Red Star fell behind to an early goal, then hit back to lead 2-1 before Young Boys substitute Guillaume Hoarau levelled with his first touch of the ball.

While the Swiss side had qualified directly for the playoff round, Red Star battled their way through three rounds, overcoming opponents from Lithuania, Finland and Denmark with the last tie against FC Copenhagen going to a remarkable 22-penalty shootout.

Both teams took part in the group stage for the first time last season and it was Young Boys who went ahead in the seventh minute when Roger Assale was sent clear of the defence and the Ivorian forward drove his shot past Milan Borjan.

Milos Degenek levelled 11 minutes later with a looping header at the far post which caught goalkeeper David van Ballmoos out of his ground.

Borjan made three outstanding saves to keep Red Star level at halftime and they went ahead immediately after the restart.

Marko Gobeljic sent in a low cross from the right and Argentine Mateo Garcia turned it in at the far post for a goal on his debut.

The drama continued as Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu burst into the Red Star area and went down under a challenge from Richmond Boakye. The referee initially gave a goal kick but changed his mind after a VAR review and Hoarau fired in the equaliser.

A late flurry from group-stage regulars Olympiakos virtually settled their tie against Krasnodar.

Miguel Angel Guerrero curled in the first on the half hour and, although Krasnodar kept it down to a single goal until the 78th minute, they were undone by a brace from substitute Lazar Randjelovic.

The Serb opened his account two minutes after coming on and netted the second from outside the penalty area in the 86th minute. Daniel Podence produced a neat dinked finish for the fourth.

Dinamo Zagreb's hopes of qualifying for the seventh time got an early boost when Marius Lundemo bundled over Bruno Petkovic who converted the penalty himself in the eighth minute.

The Croatian champions added a second with a route one goal as goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic's clearance came off the head of a defender and fell into the path of Mislav Orsic who shot under Andre Hansen.

BILBAO, Spain -- Iñaki Williams made history on a night when he wasn't even expecting to make it on the pitch.

With Athletic Club Bilbao's main striker and goal scorer, Aritz Aduriz, sidelined by injury, then-manager Ernesto Valverde (now of Barcelona) bypassed proven veteran Kike Sola and tapped Williams, an unrefined, 20-year-old speedster, to make his Europa League debut on a chilly February evening. Maybe a shot of energy was what it would take to give his tired squad a chance in the hostile climes of Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.

Athletic had just crashed out of the 2015 Champions League, dropping into Europe's secondary competition as a consolation, and the Torino faithful smelled blood in the water. The Italian squad hadn't allowed a goal at home in the past eight Europa League games, and if the cacophony raining down on Williams and his Athletic teammates served as any indication, the Toronesi were already celebrating a ninth shutout. But with the haze of pregame pyrotechnics still wafting above the pitch, an Athletic through-ball found Borja Viguera streaking down the left wing. Extending his touch, he avoided a clumsy tackle near the touchline and slid a curling ball across the box.

Despite having five defenders there to handle the cross, Torino's "iron curtain" parted, and a streaking Williams buried his first touch into the top-right corner.

The ninth-minute strike left the crowd stunned, but few were more surprised than the goal scorer. Running to the corner, he screamed, wide-eyed, "I scored a goal! I scored a goal!"

In theory, a first club goal should carry that type of raw emotion, but Williams knew his strike was more than that. With one sparkling touch, the young forward forever altered the history of his club and started a new kind of story in the process.

The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Williams was born in Bilbao, the largest city in Spain's Basque Country. That night in Torino, he became the first player of African descent to score a goal representing the rojiblanco, and only the second to play for Athletic's first team when he made his professional debut in 2014 adding a new chapter to more than a century of club history. Five years on, he hasn't stopped, emerging as the club's top scorer and one of the fastest attacking threats in La Liga. He was linked to Manchester United in the 2019 summer transfer window and recently signed a nine-year contract extension with Athletic that sets his release clause for potential suitors up to 120 million.

Perhaps more importantly, he has challenged what it means to be Basque, a cultural identity once associated solely with being white, and fought to become the leader of Spain's most insular club entering a new era.

"It gives me pride to be a part of this club. I think it opens a lot of minds," Williams said from Athletic's training ground in Lezama. "It gives me an immense pride to say that I am one of the first blacks to be a part of Athletic, score goals for the club and leave a legacy here."

AMID THE LUSH GREEN HILLS of Basque Country, Athletic Bilbao has been carving its unique legacy for more than 120 years. Football came to Basque Country in the late 1800s via English dockworkers chasing steel fortunes in newly industrialized Bilbao, and the city's signature club produced some of the most prolific Spanish goal scorers of the early 20th century.

While professional clubs have come to rely on imported talent from around the world, Athletic has fielded only players brought up through the region's academy system or born in Basque Country's seven provinces (four in modern-day Spain and three in France) since its earliest years as a club. It's an antiquated tradition in today's globalized, inclusive sports world but one that has endured Civil War, cultural purge and decades of violence and unrest at home.

Even when the region suffered heavy losses in the Spanish Civil War and the team was forced to change its name to the more Spanish "Atlético Bilbao" for three decades under the Franco dictatorship, the club remained a rallying point for Basqueland.

"This team's function is to bring together a society that is traditionally very fragmented," said Beñat Zarrabeita, a reporter with Basque news program Hamaika Telebista, whose father photographed the club's most recent league championship in 1984.

"The people don't ask where you are from, but they will sit next to you in San Mamés. I think [the club] has been a motor to celebrate the positive for a group of people that have had to overcome a lot."

The club has not only survived the region's tumultuous history; it has competed. It is one of three teams in Spain's La Liga to never be relegated from the top division (the other two being Real Madrid and FC Barcelona), having won 24 Copa del Reys and eight league titles while drawing talent from a population roughly the size of Chicago. Bilbainos take pride in their club's achievements and even more in the manner it has accomplished them.

Athletic Bilbao has taken on the world's best clubs without the help of outsiders. In the process, they have created a Basque football archetype steeped in pride, isolationism and, as a result, demographic singularity. But Bilbao is no longer the cultural vacuum of its ancestors. Over the past 20 years, a growing population of immigrants have settled in and around the city, forgoing the traditional hubs of France and England for economic opportunities in Basque Country. Today, the city's San Francisco neighborhood, a collection of buildings that once housed a Catholic convent, is a bustling patchwork of Halal markets, Latino pastry shops and Asian restaurants.

Still, it's a change that has been slow to take root on the field.

"The diversity that exists in society needs to exist in [soccer]," said Hanneke Heuseveldt, the director of youth programs at the Red Cross in Bilbao. "If we are all fans of [Athletic Bilbao] and there are only white players, it doesn't demonstrate the reality of our country."

In fact, it wasn't until 2011 that Athletic took its first step in that direction. Jonás Ramalho, the Basque-born son of an Angolan father and Basque mother, became the first black player to represent Athletic Bilbao in a regular-season match, coming on as a substitute against Sevilla.

"It was a bit of a bomb going off that a player of black roots was on the first team and could play for Athletic after all these years," Ramalho said. "But in every moment, I felt support. It was like [the community] wanted me to make my debut."

Ramalho played just eight games for the rojiblanco, but that was enough to open the door for Williams, who has been rewriting one of Spanish soccer's oldest traditions at a furious pace. His 15 goals across all competitions in 2018-2019 led Athletic, putting the striker among the top 15 goal scorers in Spain's top flight. Clocked as the second-fastest player in La Liga behind Gareth Bale, Williams adds a vertical attacking dynamic that has attracted the eyes of clubs such as Serie A's Napoli and Champions League winner Liverpool, giving the Basque club its first consistent goal-scoring threat in years.

But for Williams, life has been anything but a direct run at goal.

Shortly after the forward's birth, his parents, Félix and Maria Williams, relocated to Pamplona, the capital of Basque province Navarra, seeking work in the asparagus fields outside the city. Williams' parents had arrived in Europe with next to nothing, and the next decade proved to be a revolving door of jobs -- on farms, for night cleaning services, in geriatric care, at restaurants and airports -- in hopes of keeping the young family afloat.

With work drying up in Spain, Félix moved to London and worked as a night security guard to send money back to his wife and son. Iñaki saw his father just 15 times over the next seven years, and though his mother worked nights to spend days with her son, he spent long days home alone, eating meals with family friends in the low-income immigrant neighborhood of La Rotxapea. When his brother, Nico, was born in 2002, Iñaki, 8 years old at the time, dressed and fed his younger sibling every morning and brought him along to play with friends in the street.

"Iñaki has matured very quickly -- he's had to," said Félix Tainta, a Williams family friend and Iñaki's agent. "He's had to be a dad to his brother and a support to his mother. Every day that passes, that maturity has helped him. You can see he works differently on the field."

Williams caught Tainta's eye as a youth player for one of Pamplona's local clubs, Club Natación. He had started playing with neighbors between aging apartment complexes, passing much of his alone time with a ball at his feet. As a 10-year-old, Williams possessed a raw speed and hunger for goal that impressed the veteran agent from Pamplona. After several meetings with Williams' mother, Tainta helped Williams move to nearby CD Pamplona, and through an agreement between the club and Athletic Bilbao, Tainta was soon driving the young forward the three hours from Pamplona to Athletic's Lezama training ground twice a week. Tainta even gifted Williams his first pair of leather cleats and frequently had him over for family meals.

The investment paid off, and an 18-year-old Williams signed with Athletic's youth squad in 2012. He scored at a rate of almost a goal a game (and finished the season with 36 goals) and put himself on the tip of the Athletic faithful's tongues.

TODAY, THE WILLIAMSES WATCH THEIR son from a private box in San Mamés. Although he has suffered goal droughts in his young career, Athletic's most potent striker still stirs the stadium into a frenzy, with his long runs terrorizing La Liga opponents and offering glimpses of a homegrown star arriving on the big stage. Against Europa-bound Sevilla last season, Williams netted a brace in Athletic's 2-0 home victory, the second a blazing 60-yard solo run that La Liga pundit Sid Lowe could only explain as "genuinely exhilarating."

The club holds particular importance for a young son of immigrant parents. Two decades earlier, Félix and Maria Williams had left Ghana behind, crossing the Sahara in a walking caravan, evading Spain's national police force and scaling the razor wire fences separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Like the growing wave of immigrants pouring into Europe, they had come to Basque Country seeking a future for their children. When their son was born months later, they named him Iñaki after a local priest. It is a name inherently tied to the region and a nod to the culture into which their son was born.

For Williams, that culture has always revolved around the red and white stripes of Athletic.

"Here in Basque Country, since you are born, since you are little, your biggest hope is to play for Athletic," Williams said. "They are a humble team ... that I have always identified with. I never wanted to be anything else but a player for Athletic."

Following Ramalho, Williams realized that dream on Dec. 6, 2014, when he started in front of a home crowd that included his family and friends from Pamplona. After his historic goal at Torino, the wiry forward hit his stride the following year, netting 13 goals across all competitions.

In 2014, he called his father and told him it was time to come home.

In Santurtzi, a blue-collar suburb of Bilbao, the official Iñaki Williams Peña, a local fan club, has taken root. Thanks to the club president's nephew, the peña has its own Iñaki Williams crest, blending the striker's face with a lion, the mascot of Athletic Bilbao. Every game day, members fill up Bar Eurobilbo, with a group of old Bilbainos sipping Patxaran and supporting an Athletic they might not have recognized 10 years before.

"We are still in the process of developing a new Basque society," Zarrabeita said. "Sports is symbolic of this, and Athletic [Bilbao] is our reference."

As Williams has gained acceptance among the Athletic faithful, he has continued the club's unifying legacy. However, instead of bringing together villages throughout the Basque hillsides, Williams' success has helped Athletic embrace the growing global current at home. With Spain emerging from the shadows of the Franco regime and the country offering improved public services to immigrants, the migration of South Americans and Africans such as the Williams family to Basque Country increased from around 9,000 per year in 1992 to more than 41,000 per year by 2016, according to the latest data from the Basque Institute of Statistics.

In Williams, an expanding immigrant population has found both its bridge and its mirror, a connection to a foreign culture through a familiar face and a global game.

"Lots of people of African descent see me and know it could be their kids tomorrow or the next day," Williams said.

The first generation of Basques born to immigrant parents are now in their late teens and early 20s, and local clubs are witnessing a brand-new surge of talent. For a club such as Athletic, which must mine deeper into an increasingly thin player pool each year to stay competitive as top clubs around Europe inevitably swoop in for the best players -- the likes of Ander Herrera, Javi Martinez and Aymeric Laporte have been sold in recent years -- this evolution provides a unique opportunity for salvation. In fact, for the first time, the club's youth academy teams feature a growing collection of homegrown players of African and South American descent, including Williams' younger brother, Nico.

Williams, it seems, is the leading edge of a much larger movement.

"Williams' [story] is a form of visualizing what is happening here [in Basque Country]," Heuseveldt said.

Williams sings the Athletic hymn alongside his teammates but travels to Ghana to visit family in the offseason and is outspoken when it comes to his love of traditional African food. In fact, when the club isn't on the road, Williams eats dinner at his mom's house, forgoing regional delicacies such as pintxos (finger foods) and chuleton (T-bone steak) for fufu, a traditional Ghanaian pastry made with semolina or plantains. Last season, Williams invited the team over for a home-cooked Ghanaian meal, and in addition to Spanish, he speaks Akan (Ghana's most widely spoken language) and can communicate in Basque and English.

"People that come from other countries have it harder to integrate, but Williams is a model that can motivate them to chase their dreams," Heuseveldt said.

It's a journey that Williams has shared with Heuseveldt's youth program, made up primarily of immigrant youth struggling to find footing in a new society.

"I know what it's like to be there," Williams said.

The young forward continues to inspire a new generation in Bilbao and beyond and says he intends to do so from the region where he was born for as long as he can. Though Athletic has arguably stretched its rules to include players like Fernando Amorebieta (born in Venezuela but brought up through Athletic's youth systems) and Aymeric Laporte (whose only connection to the region are his Basque great-grandparents), Williams was born and raised in the land of the red and white. He is still proud of his African roots: he identifies as Basque and is fiercely loyal to the place that gave his family a chance in Europe.

"It might seem [that] to be black, you can't be Basque," Williams said. "But I was born here. I grew up here. I have in my blood what it means to be Basque."

In fact, Williams says he can't recall anyone ever questioning his race or "Basque-ness" at home. When Sporting Gijón supporters hurled racist chants at Williams during an away match in 2016, Athletic and its faithful were the first to step in and defend their striker. The club publicly condemned the events in Gijón and members of the Iñaki Williams Peña still talk about that game. A pair at the bar perks up, saying that would never happen "here [in Bilbao]."

Like former lion Fernando Llorente and starting Chelsea goalkeeper (and newly crowned Europa League champion) Kepa Arrizabalaga, Williams' future might lie outside of San Mamés, despite his success with Athletic's academy and first team. Still, this month he extended his contract with the club through 2028, spurning Liverpool's attempted €88 million contract buyout this spring before his club resisted overtures from Manchester United this summer. If nothing else, the gesture is a nod of allegiance to the club and the fans who, through Williams, have opened their arms to an evolving future of football talent in their own backyard.

"I feel fortunate to wear the Athletic jersey as a player of African origins," Williams said. "But people remember who you were as a player and as a person, the work you have put in for your club. In the end, I hope they will remember me for that."