According to a report by Mundo Deportivo, Aymeric Laporte is willing to leave Manchester City in this summer transfer window. As a result, the 27-year-old defender is the main sight of interest from Barcelona for a potential move.
Aymeric Laporte began his senior footballing career in Spain in La Liga. In his 8 years stay at Athletic Bilbao, he appeared 222 times while scoring 10 goals. He also won one title in 2015/16 with Athletic.
However, his career came into the limelight when he joined Manchester City in 2018. City bought him in a record fee to replace Vincent Kompany in the backline. In his first season, he appeared 51 times, while lifting the premier title.
But his second season was not that impressive. He missed a lot of matches suffering a knee injury and appeared only in 20 matches for City. The 2020/21 season also proved to be the same one as earlier for the center-back.
This season he only appeared 27 times in all competitions, but the reason is not injury. Pep Guardiola replaced him with John Stones in the backline to pair with Ruben Dias.
The defender has still four years left in his contract. But he has already wished to leave the club this summer following less game time. However, Laporte has not yet mentioned the club he wants to join, but Barcelona is the favorites to sign him.
Barcelona looking to sign Laporte to bolster their defense
The Catalans ended this season in a poor term as they finished third in the league table. While they were also knocked out of the champions league in the round of 16 by PSG.
The main reason behind this poor performance has been pointed towards the defenders. The Catalans lacked a proper backline this season which restricted them from keeping a clean sheet in most of the game.
However, Barcelona has taken that into the point and trying to reinforce some impressive talents in the backline for the next seasons. The Catalans have already signed two defenders for next season. Eric Garcia has joined as a free agent from Manchester City. While Barcelona has signed back Emerson Royal from Real Betis.
But that is not all for the Spanish giants they are still in the race for some other defenders such as Jules Kounde and Matthijs de Ligt. However, those players might be highly valued, for which they are now targeting Laporte for their backline.
If they can sign the Spaniard then he would be the 3rd City player after Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia. And It is no doubt that Laporte would a great addition for Ronald Koeman in the backline.
He could be used to replace both Gerard Pique or Jordi Alba in the team. As he is comfortable in both center-back and left-back. So, let’s wait to see what will be the next move of Barcelona to sign the defender this summer.
