This Monday, The Athletic published an interview with Laporte. In the latter part of the interview, he reflected on Manchester City's Champions League journey and his experience of losing his place in the team.
In the following years, Manchester City kept pushing for the Champions League title, but found it difficult to make a breakthrough, such as being overturned by Real Madrid in the 21-22 season.
"The mood was terrible then, the game against Real Madrid felt terrible, they were really lucky. And the game against Tottenham Hotspur was the worst of my life. These two games... against Tottenham Hotspur, we lost the game because of Llorente's handball."
"The second year, the first game of the season was against them, I chipped the ball to Gabriel Jesus, it hit my head and hand, and VAR called handball, why was it handball this time? Last year we lost the Champions League because of this, they almost killed me, too much injustice."
"I swear, every year we encounter the same situation, against Tottenham Hotspur, we missed a penalty, Aguero's penalty, and then they scored with a handball again. Against Liverpool, they were offside, and the referee said it wasn't offside."
"It's all about small details, we could have won the Champions League five times in a row, like we did in the Premier League... In 6 years, we could have lifted the Champions League trophy 5 times, it was all silly mistakes, I don't know... I'm going crazy, you know? I always can't help but 'arghhh'. It's traumatic, isn't it? These kinds of games, sigh."
Later, Manchester City achieved the treble in the 22-23 season.
"The year we won the Premier League four times in a row was amazing, 'quadruple', it was incredible, incredible, it was a great season, if I had to choose between the treble and the Premier League four times in a row, for me, even with the Champions League title, I would choose the Premier League four times in a row."
Looking back at your role in the team in the 21-22 season, in the game against Villa, due to injury problems, you partnered with Fernandinho at center-back, and Stones played as right-back.
"I knew at that moment I was done, because I couldn't even run, and we only had two games left, but no center-backs available, we were 0-2 down to Villa, and when they scored the second goal, I turned around and couldn't stop the ball."
"I was in the right position, but I just couldn't move. My legs were so stiff, I couldn't even bend my legs, I couldn't walk at all. Then we won, it was one of the craziest games I've ever seen, I was very happy then, but after that I had to have surgery, and I never returned to the field as a main player."
With other injuries in the defense, Manchester City signed Akanji, who played a key role in the team's treble-winning journey, but the increase in the number of center-backs meant you never had a chance to return to the starting lineup.
"I wasn't the same as before, because since I came to Manchester City, I've always been a key player for the team, I was one of the pillars of the team, but after I suffered several injuries, I felt that my position in the team changed, because I missed a lot of games."
"My ranking in the team dropped, and the coach lost trust in me, maybe he felt it, so he started using other players, signing other players. That year, we might have had five or six center-backs in the team, I can't remember exactly, but it was really hard to accept having so many center-backs for two positions."
"For example, Liverpool, they wouldn't have five or six center-backs, they trust the players they have, and that's it, and that's what I lacked at Manchester City, sometimes they only have 2 center-backs, sometimes they have 6, I know this brings challenges, but too many people is also not good."
"Although it was about rotation and so on, I wanted to get into the national team at the time, but if you don't play, you can't get into the national team, you have to stay in shape, I had a lot of thoughts in my mind, wanting to make a change, because I've always been very competitive, never wanted to sit on the bench, I'm still young, and I still have a lot of potential to play."
Now, you have returned to Athletic Club and will represent Spain in the World Cup.
"I'm excited, let's see how far we can go, we have a lot of very good players in our team, look at these players, we all play for big teams... Arsenal, Manchester City, Barca, Real Madrid, Athletic Club, Leverkusen, all top teams."