OFFICIAL: Al Nassr complete the signing of Aymeric Laporte from Man City on a £23.6m fee.
Aymeric Laporte has completed his €27.5million (£23.5m) move to Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr.
The 29-year-old defender struggled for minutes at Manchester City last season, making only 12 Premier League appearances, and was not included in the squad for Saturday's 1-0 victory over Newcastle.
Laporte had also seen his competition at City increase over the summer, with Josko Gvardiol — a fellow left-footed centre-back — arriving from RB Leipzig for €90million (£77.6m, $98.6m).
Al Nassr have already signed Sadio Mane, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana, Otavio and Alex Telles amid the Saudi Pro League’s summer of big spending. They also brought in Cristiano Ronaldo last December following his exit from Manchester United.
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Laporte becomes the latest high-profile player to sign for a Saudi Pro League club, with ex-City team-mate Riyad Mahrez among them after making the move to Al-Ahli last month. He will link up with Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane at Al-Nassr.
Al-Nassr posted a video on Twitter to announce the signing of Laporte, who will wear the No 27 shirt.
'Laporte is here,' he said in the clip.
Laporte said on Wednesday: 'Dear Cityzens, today I wanted to share a story with you,' Laporte said in a video confirming his departure on Wednesday.
'This is now our history. Thank you and see you really soon.'
Centre-back Laporte added in his social-media post: 'It has lasted for five-and-a-half unforgettable years.
'Plenty of memories that I will keep forever close to my heart.'
Laporte leaves Etihad after making 180 appearances for City, with his last outing for the club off the bench during their opening-day Premier League win at Burnley.
'When I first joined, I was excited about the prospect of winning trophies. However, I could not have imagined the success we would go on to achieve together,' Laporte told the Man City website.
'I would like to thank the coaches, my team-mates and of course the brilliant City fans for all of their support throughout my time in Manchester.
'I will always be a City fan and I look forward to seeing you all again.'
After being restricted to a place among the substitutes for the Community Shield defeat to Arsenal and the UEFA Super Cup triumph over Sevilla, he was absent from the matchday squad for last weekend's win over Newcastle.
The arrival of Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig has further pushed Laporte down the pecking order at City.
A powerful recruitment drive by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has seen Saudi Pro League teams - all PIF-owned - sign a plethora of the world's best players this summer.
Ronaldo, Mane, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson have all swapped the Premier League for the division in the Middle East during the past 12 months.
Laporte will now do the same after winning 13 trophies during his time at City, including five Premier League titles and last season's Champions League.
Pubackrtz
916
Ronaldo may not be respected by the media but his influence is immense
JoyNg01
451
Messi left football in Europe to go play soccer and score goals every game… Burger King 🍔 . Cristiano Ronaldo took football with him from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is football. He is the game. He is the greatest to ever partake in this beautiful game. He has no equals whatsoever!!!🫡❤️🐐🐐🐐🐐👏🏾👏🏾
FootballChief
426
I have never seen this kind of influence before. One man to single-handedly define the destiny of a Sport. Forever the GOAT
Muhdsabir
403
Saudi league carrying European players be like
Zicbikns
347
Thank you Laporte &, wish you all de best for new challenge
cr7_fan00
336
My goat has always choosen the hard path thro his career 😢 .. >He left the strongest side of Man United and joined the struggling Real Madrid >He left the prime Madrid to join Juventus >He left one of Juventus best squads ever to return the struggling Man United >He was benched by Ten Hag dispite him being their best player. >Wen many thought he was about to retire. He left and joined the struggling Al Nassr.
Ebubechukwu1996
307
Messi left Europe to MLS Ronaldo took Europe to Saudi Arabia they are levels to this game 🐐
gyles45
129
That's what you do when you have completed football in Europe. Leaving Europe with most goals, most assists, most trophies, most ballon dors, most golden boots and most awards to complete soccer in US is not that bad unlike CR5 who couldn't complete football in Europe so had to carry football to the desert to try completing it. Unfortunately, desert will always be desert, Europe forever Europe and world cup forever world cup😂. Doesn't matter what CRynaldians what their little brains to think 😭
Both leagues are shit.
bepbdntuy
84
Messi is the 6th highest paid player in the world but people think he is playing for free.
and he used to be the highest paid before but his bias fans always talking shit
gm11
14
Messi left football in Europe to go play soccer and score goals every game… Burger King 🍔 . Cristiano Ronaldo took football with him from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is football. He is the game. He is the greatest to ever partake in this beautiful game. He has no equals whatsoever!!!🫡❤️🐐🐐🐐🐐👏🏾👏🏾
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Messi left Europe after he conquered Europe and won everything possible, he also done the same in international level something Ronaldo can't say (0 world cups) burger king league is in the top 10 leagues in the world unfortunately Saudi doesn't come near the top ten even with the players they have signed, money won't bring all the fans from around the world that prefer European / south American football can't and won't change that. Messi is on vacation in the MLS chilling on the throne of football with the crown on his head while Pele and Maradona hold the leaves from a plant to cool Messi down and Ronaldo holds the tray of grapes to hand feed the GOAT (MESSI).
hoacemnors
11
Messi left football in Europe to go play soccer and score goals every game… Burger King 🍔 . Cristiano Ronaldo took football with him from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is football. He is the game. He is the greatest to ever partake in this beautiful game. He has no equals whatsoever!!!🫡❤️🐐🐐🐐🐐👏🏾👏🏾
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Nice World Cup knockout goal contribution 👏 Funny infantile comments like this makes your pain a little more bearable so go on.
wiseman450
11
Messi left football in Europe to go play soccer and score goals every game… Burger King 🍔 . Cristiano Ronaldo took football with him from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is football. He is the game. He is the greatest to ever partake in this beautiful game. He has no equals whatsoever!!!🫡❤️🐐🐐🐐🐐👏🏾👏🏾
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you're the must useless person who has ever lived
Rickylubs
10
Messi left football in Europe to go play soccer and score goals every game… Burger King 🍔 . Cristiano Ronaldo took football with him from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo is football. He is the game. He is the greatest to ever partake in this beautiful game. He has no equals whatsoever!!!🫡❤️🐐🐐🐐🐐👏🏾👏🏾
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I like the way Ronaldo fans creat their own happiness 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Vuyabkmnps
10
Messi left Europe after he conquered Europe and won everything possible, he also done the same in international level something Ronaldo can't say (0 world cups) burger king league is in the top 10 leagues in the world unfortunately Saudi doesn't come near the top ten even with the players they have signed, money won't bring all the fans from around the world that prefer European / south American football can't and won't change that. Messi is on vacation in the MLS chilling on the throne of football with the crown on his head while Pele and Maradona hold the leaves from a plant to cool Messi down and Ronaldo holds the tray of grapes to hand feed the GOAT (MESSI).
u know right the.. reason Ronaldo is not retiring and hanging up his boot is because he wants to be relevant in GOAT status cause he can neither play in European football and score goals and neither can he help his team get world..the only thing he can do is score in Camel league and keep on scoring so him and his fans will claim Ronaldo is still playing at this age he's the goat ...but deep down they know he's not the GOAT but their ego is like their idol so they won't accept this 🤣🤣🤣