Record man Laporte aims for a quick cup success
Aymeric Laporte’s name will be long remembered in the French rugby union city of Agen, after the local football club received a £580,000 windfall last month.
SU Agen, who play in the eighth tier of the French league, collected 1% of the clubrecord fee that Manchester City paid Athletic Bilbao for the centre-back.
The money will allow the club Laporte played for until he was 15 to clear its debts and budget for the next four seasons.
There’s also talk of them naming something in his honour to mark his contribution to their survival.
Today, though, the 23-year-old couldn’t be further away from his roots, as he steps out at Wembley to face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup Final.
His first taste of English club football ended in a shock defeat at Wigan last Monday, so he knows that the prospect of picking up his first major trophy just four games into his City career is far from a given.
“The truth is, we had a bad night,” he says. “We’d been in great form, but we knew it was going to be a difficult match as Wigan would play for their lives.
“So it’s now a case of keeping our heads up and focusing on this next game.
“Winning a cup final would be a big step forward for us. It would be great to get a trophy under our belts and then focus again on the League to try to maintain the distance between us and second place.
“Winning a trophy would definitely help the development of the team. It would increase everyone’s confidence.
“But Arsenal are a dangerous team. They have great players and they’ve made some great signings. And we know that we can’t take any opponent for granted.”
Laporte doesn’t know how SU Agen are going to mark his financial lifeline.
“There has been talk about naming a plot of land after me but I don’t know exactly what,” he said, but he appreciates the role they played in his development.
“I was born there, I grew up there, I did everything there, so obviously I’m really happy to have been able to help my old club, especially with them having financial difficulties.
“I still have contacts there. I’ve received calls from the local council congratulating me on my move to City and thanking me for what it has done for the club.
“From the age of 11, I went to a sports school where I stayed during the week and only went home at weekends.
“It was hard because I really missed my family and friends, but it prepared me and made me stronger before I left for Bilbao.
“Even though Agen is a strong rugby city, I was always clear in my mind that I wanted to play football.
“My father played in the French second division. He didn’t want me to play rugby because it’s very hard on the body.
“I was told that out of 1000, only one of us would make it as a player. But I kept fighting to achieve my dream every single day.
“I worked hard and made many sacrifices, but I’m so happy to think about what I did to get here.”
Laporte’s move from Bilbao to City was first mooted in the summer of 2016, but it failed to materialise.
“I was injured and I didn’t think it was the right moment for me to come here,” he says.
“I knew that if I kept working hard, the chance would come as City knew the potential I had.
“It was the right move for me firstly because of the manager.
“I have already learned a lot from Pep Guardiola in the short time I’ve been here. He is such an influential figure in the world of football.
“Then I looked at the team and there are so many players of a similar age to me. That was also a major factor in my thinking.”