The central defender completed his move from Athletic Club in Spain on 30 January 2018.
He made an immediate impact, playing nine of the final 14 Premier League games in our historic Centurions campaign.
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Since then, Laporte has been an integral part of Pep Guardiola‘s team and lifted nine major honours while wearing sky blue.
A rock at the heart of the defence and capable of probing passes into midfield, Laporte has featured on 168 occasions in his City career.
Here we’ll take a look at his most notable performances for City...
City 3-0 West Brom, 31 January 2018
Having only arrived at the Etihad Stadium a day prior, Laporte instantly took his place in the backline.
With John Stones unwell and Vincent Kompany rested, he slotted in alongside Nicolas Otamendi.
Our CITY+ documentary on Laporte reveals the whirlwind nature of his first 48 hours as a City player.
Watch our Aymeric Laporte documentary on CITY+
Having landed in Manchester and completed the transfer, he was summoned to the training pitch two hours later – despite having no boots with him!
And after his first session at the CFA, Guardiola told him he would be making his debut against West Brom the following day.
“So, it was a few days before the transfer market closed, maybe five days before I knew the interest and we had to do everything quick,” recalls Laporte.
“And Pep said to me, ‘have you got the boots with you?’ and I said, ‘no I just arrived now, I don’t have the boots’.
“Then he said, ‘Okay, so in two hours we have to train’ and I said, ‘the last two weeks I didn’t train and you’re asking me to train in two hours and I don’t have my boots - so we need to find a solution.’
“So they came back with some boots, I trained in the afternoon two hours after I arrived here and after the training session he said to me to come up to his office to ask me if I was prepared to play the game the day after.”
It was a physical introduction to the Premier League, coming up against Salomon Rondon. However, he was more than a match for the striker in what proved to be a comfortable win.
City 2-1 Liverpool, 3 January 2019
When available in 2018/19, Laporte played. In this match he was selected at left-back to try to negate the threat of Mo Salah, the league’s most dangerous player in that campaign.
What followed was one of the best matches in Premier League history between two sides that would go on to register 98 and 97 points respectively.
Laporte has featured at full-back on occasion during his City career and as this performance showed, he’s more than capable of defending the wide areas even against the very best.
Brighton 1-4 City, 12 May 2019
Having gone behind in a game we needed to win in order to seal the Premier League title on the final day of the season, City responded quickly.
Sergio Aguero got the equaliser moments after Brighton’s strike, but it was Laporte ten minutes later that put us out in front. That’s where we stayed for the rest of the day.
The defender simply wanted the ball more than anyone else in the box, attacking it aggressively, and powered his header home. It was the boost that we needed to seal a second consecutive title.
City 6-0 Watford, 18 May 2019
In some ways, this was not the most challenging cup final for a defender. However, the solid foundation provided by Laporte and Vincent Kompany was what we built this win on.
Watford struggled to maintain possession because the two City centre-backs were so dominant.
The win completed the Fourmidables season, which made City the first side to win all four domestic trophies available in English football and continued a trophy laden start to life in Manchester for Laporte.
City 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 25 April 2021
Another major final, this one a much tighter affair. In fact, it was decided by Laporte.
The Blues had peppered Hugo Lloris’ goal for much of the afternoon but as the second half wore on, it looked as if extra time and penalties may well be needed.
That was until Laporte came forward and got his head to a wicked Kevin De Bruyne cross in the 82nd minute.
Burnley 0-2 City, 2 April 2022
A routine victory in the Premier League. This was the the kind of composed performance we have been used to seeing from Laporte since his arrival.
It was his 100th Premier League appearance and one that set a new league-wide record.
At this point, Laporte had won 82, drawn eight and lost 10 of his 100 Premier League games. That means he holds the record for most points collected in a player’s first 100 appearances in the competition.
It saw him surpass the likes of Ederson, Didier Drogba and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Atletico Madrid 0-0 City, 13 April 2022
A match that best demonstrates an underrated feature of Pep Guardiola‘s City sides and one that has been so pivotal in our sustained success.
It’s well known that the Blues are capable of sumptuous attacking football and level headedness. However, this match took incredible focus and determination.
The sides engaged in a brutal display which required our central defenders in particular to stand up tall and time every tackle and attack every header.
The clean sheet saw us through the tie after the 1-0 victory at the Etihad.
Laporte’s City stats
Aymeric Laporte has played 168 times for City.
113 of those have come in the Premier League, 15 in the FA Cup, seven in the Carabao Cup, one in the Community Shield and 32 in the Champions League.
He has scored 12 times in total, with eight of those coming in the Premier League.
In the Premier League, he has had 10,404 touches which is an average of 92 touches per match. He has also played 9,458 passes, with 3,222 of those going forward.
His 3,122 touches in 2021/22 was the third most at City and across the league.
