Tearful Laporte thanks Al Nassr fans for support, dedicates win to late father | OneFootball

Aymeric Laporte has paid tribute to the Al Nassr fans for their show of support following the death of his father, while he also dedicated Friday’s victory against Al Fayha to him.

Laporte was last month granted compassionate leave to fly back to Europe and spend time with his father and family, but returned to the side for the 3-0 home win in Matchweek 19 of the Roshn Saudi League. He had missed the previous three league games.

Before the match, the Al Awwal Park faithful unfurled a banner that read: “Aymeric, our hearts are with you at this difficult time. The entire Al Nassr family stands by your side. Stay strong.”

The heartfelt message reduced Laporte to tears, however, after the match, the Spanish international said: “Thank you very much. It’s a tough time for me. You never think about that in your life and what happened is very difficult, very tough for a player.

“But today we win for him and I’m very happy.”

Laporte added: “Just thank you very much for [the message]. I really appreciate it. To be honest, it was difficult, not to play, but the last few weeks because he was in a sad situation and I tried to be with him as close as possible. Thank you for the support.”

The win, sealed by Jhon Duran’s brace on RSL debut and Cristiano Ronaldo’s birthday goal, maintained Al Nassr’s title bid. The Riyadh club sit third in the table, eight points off leaders Al Ittihad. They are one of the division’s most in-form teams having won their past four league matches.

“Very happy to come back and win again,” Laporte said: “We want to reach the first places of the table, so we are trying it, and we will try until the end, and we will see what happens. We will do our job until the end. That’s all I can say.”