Aymeric Laporte aiming to return to Athletic Club on free transfer | OneFootball

Athletic Club have had a sold summer transfer window thus far, and it could be about to get better. Nico Williams snubbed Barcelona to pen a new 10-year contract, Robert Navarro and Jesus Areso have joined, and all three could soon be teammates with Aymeric Laporte.

Laporte’s situation at Al-Nassr has generated significant speculation in recent weeks. He is desperate to leave the Saudi Pro League side in favour of a return to Europe, and right now, re-signing for Athletic is the most likely outcome.

He has already reached an agreement on personal terms with the club he came through the ranks with before a 2018 move to Manchester City. And as it turns out, there is a chance that Athletic are able to sign him on a free.

Image via Cordon Press

As per Marca, Laporte is negotiating a mutual contract termination with Al-Nassr. He wants to make it easy for Athletic to sign him, but in order for an agreement to be reached, he would need to give up a significant portion of the salary that he would be owed for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Al-Nassr head coach confirms Laporte exit decision

If this cannot be agreed upon, Al-Nassr would demand that any club wishing to sign Laporte pays a transfer fee. However, the Saudi Pro League side are expecting the 31-year-old to go, which was confirmed by their head coach, Jorge Jesus.

“Laporte is going to leave, and we are going to sign a player with a similar profile.”

There is no doubt that re-signing Laporte would be magnificent news for Athletic, and this would especially be the case if they were able to pick him up as a free agent. There is still work to be done before this can become a reality, but things appear to be moving in the right direction.