Manchester City are prepared to sell defender Aymeric Laporte for £60m this summer, with the French-born Spain international keen to return to La Liga after losing his starting place.
City paid what was then a club record £57m fee for Laporte in January 2018 and he was arguably the best centre-back in the Premier League when the club narrowly beat Liverpool to the title the following year.
But the former Athletic Club star suffered a long-term knee injury at the start of the 2019/20 season and was ruled out for several months. He returned to the starting lineup once he had fully recovered but then lost his place to Ruben Dias at the start of 2020/21 campaign.
90min revealed at the start of August that Laporte has informed City of his desire to leave, with La Liga the only place he wants to go. Real Madrid and Barcelona have both registered interest and have asked City to be kept informed of his situation.
The Daily Mail has now reported that City have agreed to sell if an offer meets their £60m valuation of the 27-year-old. That agreement is believed to have made with the player before the start of the transfer window.
City have already spent £100m on a British record transfer to sign Jack Grealish this summer but player sales would be a major help in getting closer to the £150m it may take to persuade Tottenham to part company with Harry Kane.
Laporte, along with Bernardo Silva, who was close to joining Barcelona last summer until the Catalan club’s finances ensured it could not happen, are the two most obvious saleable assets who could raise a significant amount of revenue.
The problem for City when it comes to selling Laporte is that the clubs who have made their interest known are unlikely to have the finances to make an offer. Real and Barça would both benefit from defensive reinforcements, but the former have suffered as a result of the pandemic, while the latter are struggling to comply with La Liga salary rules as it is.
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Source : 90min