Aymeric Laporte: Forgotten Frenchman Becoming Spain’s Hero

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19 July 2026

If you look at the birthplaces of Spain’s national team players, there would be one person jumping out at you. That’s

Aymeric Laporte

Unlike the other 25 players in the squad, Laporte was born and raised in

France

. And also unlike his occasional center back teammate Dean Huijsen, who moved to

Spain

when young, Laporte only moved to

when he was 16 years old.

So why is he playing for

instead of France? This is his story.

Born Aymeric Jean Louis Gérard Alphonse Laporte, he grew up in Agen, a commune just southeast of Bordeaux in the south of

He started playing both soccer and rugby as a child. By the time he was a teenager, he was getting noticed by top European academies.

One of those was Athletic Club Bilbao. The club has a strict policy of only signing Basque players, but discovered that Laporte’s great grandparents were, in fact, Basque. They invited him to join their academy in 2009, though this ruffled some feathers due to the tenuous and distant connection to Basqueness.

Because he was only 15, and deemed too young to leave

, Laporte trained with nearby Bayonne. In 2010, he officially joined Athletic Club’s Lezama academy.

Laporte immediately showed his quality at Lezama and jumped through the youth ranks quickly. He was promoted to the first team and made his senior debut at 18. The defender was also getting constant call-ups to

youth teams as they were tracking his progress.

The 2013/14 season was where he fully cemented his starting spot for his club, making 35 appearances in La Liga. But his

senior call-up didn’t come; he was still playing for the French youth teams. His frustration led to him to say in 2015 that if he didn’t get a call-up for

Euro

2016, he would consider switching to

Didier Deschamps still didn’t call him. As it turned out, Laporte suffered an injury before the tournament, and would have missed out regardless. But the snub was there.

In fall of 2016, Laporte started the process of making himself eligible for

. At that moment, he finally got the

senior team call-up by Deschamps. However, the defender didn’t play a single minute.

He was still holding out the hopes of playing for

, and despite Spain’s interest, Laporte decided to keep waiting for his birth country.

In the winter of 2018, Laporte made a $76 million move to Manchester City. It was a record breaking deal for both clubs at the time. He became a key starter for City right away and won the Premier League a few months later.

Deschamps still didn’t give Laporte a chance. Though called up for World Cup qualifiers in October 2017, he didn’t play. He also missed out on the 2018 World Cup where

ended up lifting the trophy.

Laporte was getting tired of waiting. As one of the best defenders in the Premier League at the time, he knew he had the quality to play international football. In 2019, he thought his chance had come when he got the call for

2020 qualifiers. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury which ruled him out.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFRF) took matters into their own hands and extended Laporte an offer of Spanish citizenship. In May 2021, when he realized

would not call him up to

2020 (delayed one year due to COVID), Laporte accepted the offer and officially switched to

While

got knocked out from the Round of 16 in that tournament, Laporte emerged as a key player for

in their run to the semifinals. He followed that up by featuring i three out of four games in the 2022 World Cup. But it was

2024 where he got to taste victory with his adopted country.

Laporte played every knockout game as a starter in that tournament, including the game against

where

won. He formed a solid partnership with Robin Le Normand, another defender who switched from

Laporte’s club form has been shaky in the past few years, after he left Manchester City for a big payday with Saudi team Al-Nassr. In 2025 he returned to his boyhood club. Despite his form, Laporte was included in the squad for the 2026 World Cup and so far, he’s played in all seven games.

Now a veteran, he has formed a great partnership with teenager Pau Cubarsí, and together, they’ve only allowed one goal in the tournament.

From being constantly ignored by Deschamps for

, Laporte has won the Euros for

and now a game away from winning the World Cup. What a story.

Pau Cubarsí admits he ‘can imagine’ playing with Spain star at Barcelona

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