1 Rising star
Standing at six feet, three inches, Aymeric began his career with Basconia and joined Athletic Bilbao in 2012 and made his debut as 18-year-old against Celta Vigo.
Aymeric Laporte: Career gallery
Aymeric Laporte: By the numbers
2 International pedigree
Aymeric captained the France Under-19s to the 2013 European Championship final held in Lithuania. Though France lost to Serbia, Laporte was named in the 23-man team of the tournament, along with future club team-mate Bernardo Silva.
3 Numbers game
Aymeric will wear the No.14 shirt with City, though there have been mixed fortunes for previous wearers of this number for the Blues – Wilfried Bony, Javi Garcia, Roque Santa Cruz and Kiki Musampa all chose the shirt, as did Eyal Berkovic. It is believed he chose #14 as it is closest to the #4 he wore for Bilbao.
4 Youth performance
Laporte has represented France 41 times at Under-17, Under-18, Under-19 and Under-21 levels.
5 First team experience
Aymeric played 222 times for Athletic Bilbao, scoring 10 goals during his six-season stint.
6 Silverware
Laporte played in both legs of the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona and helped Athletic Bilbao land their first trophy for 31 years.
7 Versatile
Predominantly left-footed, Laporte can also fill in at left-back if required – he has a decent right-foot too! As for possible set-pieces, Laporte began his career as a striker before working his way back to central defence.
8 Agen-born
Athletic Bilbao had to bend their own rules to allow Laporte to join them. The La Liga club’s Basque Country-only rule meant that, technically, they couldn’t sign the Agen-born defender. However, as his grandparents did hail from the Basque region and he was allowed to join aged 15. The only other French player to play for Athletic Bilbao was Bixente Lizarazu.
9 Ball-playing
He was named in the 2013/14 La Liga Team of the Season aged only 20 and is very much a footballing defender, commenting: “My position is the most important evolution has been in the sense of being more than a defender. A big part of my game is to bring the ball out from the back. Defenders do this more than ever before. It’s all about arriving at perfection. I spend as much time in training and matches working on starting attacks as I do stopping them.”
