It is three days before Spain’s European Championship quarter-final against tournament hosts Germany, and Aymeric Laporte is in a confident mood.
The 30-year-old centre-back has played all but one of his side’s four matches so far, helping them breeze into the last eight while conceding just one goal. Luis de la Fuente’s side have been the most impressive team in the competition and Laporte has played a key role with his defensive solidity and passing out from the back.
But there were doubts about the former Manchester City defender when he first arrived at Spain’s base in Donaueschingen, a town in the Black Forest, south-west Germany. Barcelona’s 17-year-old defender Pau Cubarsi had been dropped from the provisional squad for the tournament, much to many fans’ disappointment, and Real Madrid’s Nacho had ended the season in good form.
Laporte had spent the season playing in Saudi Arabia’s Pro League with Al Nassr and was forced to miss the opening group game against Croatia — a situation that created concerns over his physical condition. There were questions over whether taking him to Germany had been the right call from De la Fuente.
“It annoyed me when I heard about the doubts,” Laporte says. “But mainly because the arguments were pure speculation and people didn’t know anything.
“They claimed I got injured because I was not in shape, but they didn’t know I stayed in Saudi Arabia training with Al Nassr until May 30. Then I went to Bilbao with my family, and trained every day on my own to get here in the best possible shape.
“I left my kids, with my youngest having been born in May, and my wife at home in Bilbao to go to training on my own — and don’t get me wrong, I did this happily because I wanted to be here.
“But then I had to read or listen all day (to suggestions) that I was not ready to travel here. That bothers you.”
Laporte was one of a clutch of Europe’s elite players who moved to the Saudi Pro League last summer after the country’s Public Investment Fund took control of four clubs, joining Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr in the capital Riyadh for €27million ($29m; £23m) after five trophy-laden years with Manchester City.
He played 39 games in all competitions, scoring four goals, but Al Nassr fell short in their quest for the league title, finishing as runners-up 14 points behind city rivals Al Hilal and also losing the King’s Cup final — the Saudi equivalent of the FA Cup — to them on penalties.
Laporte joined Al Nassr last summer (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
Players who joined the Pro League have been questioned for playing in a country whose human rights records has attracted condemnation from Amnesty International and other groups.
There has also been scepticism over the standard of football on display, despite the heavy investment.
“We are not bad players for being there, and I am not going to lose my football abilities overnight,” Laporte says.
“In my case, I can tell you I demand the most from myself and I train (in Saudi) at the same intensity I did in Europe. I want to be in the best possible conditions to be up for selection with Spain too, because this is the place where I’ve enjoyed football the most in the last eight years of my career.
“I understand there were more doubts about me after I joined Al Nassr. The Saudi Pro League is not among the leagues with the biggest impact in the world at the moment. With new signings and players coming in, it will surely become bigger and bigger.
“The rhythm in competition is possibly a bit less — except some games against the top teams, where I would say it’s the same. They are high-intensity games.”
De la Fuente announced his final Spain squad for the Euros in late May. All the players joined up with the team on June 1, apart from Dani Carvajal, Nacho and Joselu, who were preparing for that day’s Champions League final with Real Madrid, and Laporte, as the King’s Cup final was played in Jeddah the day before.
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“I was also criticised for arriving later than others,” he says. “But I did this because the coaching staff told me to. In the end, I stopped caring too much because the noise came from places which did not have any information.”
De la Fuente stood up for the defender before that opening game against Croatia in Berlin, calling him “one of the best in the world in his position”.
“It is crucial for a player to feel protected like that,” Laporte says. “If I am this happy while representing Spain, it is because of details such as this. When you feel this trust, you end up playing freely and showing your best game. I don’t know if De la Fuente’s man-management is his strongest asset, but it is definitely one of them.”
Then again, Laporte is used to being in the spotlight, as a player who switched international allegiances from France to Spain. He was born in Agen, south-west France, and represented that country at youth level. He never made his senior debut for them — but came close to doing so.
Laporte on the bench for France before a 2016 friendly against the Netherlands (Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
France boss Didier Deschamps called him up three times but did not play him. He did so a fourth time in August 2019, but the weekend before joining the team for that international break, Laporte suffered a significant knee injury playing for City. He was replaced by Samuel Umtiti and Deschamps didn’t call him up again.
“It is true that if I had not had this meniscus and cartilage injury on my knee I wouldn’t be here right now probably, as I would have joined the French national team,” Laporte says. “But that’s part of football.”
After learning he was not in Deschamps’ plans, the Spanish Federation started exploring the possibility of Laporte declaring for them. He had spent more than the required five years living in Spain after joining Athletic Bilbao’s youth academy in 2010 at age 16, making him eligible for a switch under FIFA rules.
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Spain’s then coach Luis Enrique was desperate to use him and reinforce a position where his side were lacking big names. Laporte felt appreciated and the switch was complete, at age 26, in May 2021 — just in time for that year’s pandemic-delayed Euro 2020 tournament staged all across the continent.
A few days after making his debut in a pre-Euros friendly against Portugal, Laporte was asked in a press conference if he felt “fully Spanish” and able to represent the “badge, flag and anthem”. “Wow, what a question!” was his response. Three years and 32 caps for Spain later, he does not regret making the switch.
“Right now, I feel more identified with the values of the Spanish national team than what I felt from the French team,” he says.
“I played with France in the youth ranks, feeling very comfortable and proudly captaining the team on multiple occasions. But now I’m at another phase in my life where I feel very represented by the Spanish culture. My wife is Spanish, both of my children were born in Bilbao and I am so happy to have embraced this culture in that way.”
Laporte’s switch was so successful, and other Spanish centre-backs’ struggles so great, the federation and De la Fuente repeated the experiment with Real Sociedad’s Robin Le Normand. Born in Brittany, in the far north-west of France, Le Normand moved to the Basque club in 2016 and received Spanish nationality in May last year. They are now Spain’s undisputed first-choice pairing in central defence.
French-born duo Laporte and Le Normand, right, are now Spain’s starting centre-backs (Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images)
“I feel we combine well on the pitch,” Laporte says.
“We speak to each other in Spanish on and off the pitch — except when we want to avoid the rest of the squad knowing what we’re doing and then we turn to French,” he jokes.
Le Normand’s own goal in the 4-1 win against Georgia in the round of 16 on Sunday is the only time Spain have conceded at the tournament. Laporte puts that excellent record down to a collective effort from the team.
“Our target is to reduce mistakes,” he says. “Not conceding goals is not just a task for me or Robin. We have strikers such as (Alvaro) Morata, who do an amazing job with high pressing. The fact we have good defensive numbers is thanks to those efforts too.
“I am happy to be a vocal character on the pitch. I try to do this as much as I can. At City, I did not have the chance to do it every time, also because I was very young at the start there. But I feel comfortable trying to help my team-mates.”
Laporte produced the most defensive interventions (six) against Georgia and won all three of his duels. He is fundamental in build-up play, as the graphic below shows — with the majority of his passes going out to the left wing. He ended the match with the second-most touches (123) after only midfielder Rodri and the most completed passes (111), with a 98 per cent accuracy rate.
Now his Spain team face their biggest test against Germany in Stuttgart today (Friday). “Their individuals are amazing and the results have been very good so far,” Laporte says. “In the same way, we back ourselves and know it’s difficult to find teams who have played better than us.”
It is the kind of boldness shown by Spain’s two brilliant young stars on the wing — Barcelona’s 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, 21.
“The spark they have is just incredible,” Laporte says. “Lamine possibly even a bit more, I think he is not totally conscious of what it’s like to deal with the football world, the impact, responsibility and consequences of everything. He just dribbles past opponents and is so good at it.
“Nico has been in the top flight for a bit longer and might know it better, but he’s similar. That’s how they express themselves and I hope they keep doing this for a long time, because they’ll give Spain a lot of success.”
‘The spark they have is just incredible,’ says Laporte of Yamal and Williams (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
Laporte is a veteran in comparison to the teenage Yamal. So what are his interactions with him like?
“In the past, it was possibly more difficult to break through at international level and have a crucial role,” Laporte says.
“To trust a 16-year-old to represent a whole country is a huge thing and it was difficult years ago. But with Lamine, he is not too conscious about everything he represents. He just enjoys playing football — he plays as if he were at the park in his neighbourhood and that’s part of what makes him so good.
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“As a veteran, you also take that into account when dealing with them. With Lamine, he is so young that you try to be even more sensible or reasonable when you speak with him. If he was a bit older, maybe 18 or 20, possibly we would feel in a position to correct him more or give some advice. But it is our responsibility to mature with this too.
“Both of them are great — don’t get me wrong. They are fantastic kids who have not made a single bad gesture and behave perfectly. Sometimes they get a bit cocky when we play some games during the camp, but that’s where we veterans come in every now and then to tell them how things go.”
Laporte is set to face two of former City team-mates, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, in Friday’s quarter-final. He is full of praise for midfielder Gundogan, who is Germany’s captain and one of their most influential figures.
“He is one of the best I’ve ever played with in this position, without a shadow of a doubt,” Laporte says. “He spins and turns in an outstanding manner. Then he gets every control oriented towards attack, straight away.
“I’ve seen very few players who can do that in those central positions. I would possibly compare him to (City’s former Spanish playmaker) David Silva, who was as good (as him) or even better in that regard. They are those sorts of players who make the difference simply by how they control the ball.
Laporte and Gundogan in action for City in 2018 (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
“I would highlight (winger Jamal) Musiala as well. He is a different player, a sort of dribbler like Lamine. The times I’ve played against him, I could see on the pitch he has sparks that show you he’s different class. Germany is a super team overall, I don’t want to forget about (Toni) Kroos, (Antonio) Rudiger or other names, but I would say the individuals in their front line stand out for sure.”
That Spain are considered favourites for this match by some might be a shock, given how certain commentators underestimated them before the tournament — but not for Laporte.
“I am not surprised we were ignored at the start of this Euros,” he says. “In the last Euros, it was even worse, no one considered us as candidates to win the trophy and when we reached the semi-finals, it looked like we overachieved massively. The only thing that changes by being favourites is how much the media talks or makes assessments after the competition. In our heads, the focus remains the same.”
This is the approach that has made Spain the best team of Euro 2024 so far. And it is one of the main reasons tonight’s game, against a fine Germany side, could be one for the ages.
(Top photo: Pablo Garcia/RFEF; design by Eamonn Dalton)
