Manchester City star in advance stages to join Al Nassr in £17m move

Manchester City are expected to remain busy near the end of the summer transfer window. The club is still looking to add in the attack while questions will be asked on if someone will be brought in to cushion the blow of De Bruyne’s injury. City are also focused on selling defender Joao Cancelo, as The Top Flight has covered. Another defender Manchester City may sell this summer is centre-back Aymeric Laporte who has now “accepted” to join a new club.

Manchester City’s Aymeric Laporte gives greenlight to join Saudi side Al Nassr

Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Manchester City and Al Nassr have received the green light from Aymeric Laporte to conduct a transfer for the player. Laporte’s yearly salary with Al Nassr is expected to be around £17m and he will sign a contract that runs until 2026. Romano has now confirmed that Manchester City will now receive around £25.6m as the total package from Al Nassr. Aymeric Laporte has just two years left on his contract, which may explain that relatively low fee. Additionally, the signing of Josko Gvardiol has pushed Laporte even further out of Pep Guardiola’s plans.

Laporte did not feature much last season for Manchester City. After recovering from surgery, the Spanish international mainly rode the bench as City went on to win the treble. Aymeric Laporte joined Manchester City from Spanish side Athletic Bilbao. Born and raised in France, Laporte is of Basque descent, hence why he was able to play for Bilbao, which holds restrictions that only players of a Basque background can play for them. It also made him eligible for Spain, which he made his debut for in 2020 Euros, which was played in 2021 due to COVID-19.

Al Nassr is busy adding more stars from European leagues. After signing Cristiano Ronaldo in January, the club has added Seko Fofana, Sadio Mane, Marcelo Brozovic and Alex Telles this summer.