A former Man City player thought that he had completed the transfer at the end of the 2025 summer market, but an incident made him unable to play.
In a busy final day of European clubs, Aymeric Laporte completed the return to Athletic Bilbao after a period of competition with Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr.
Laporte played 69 matches for Al Nassr but wanted to end his adventure at Saudi Pro League and with the club signing a contract with Inigo Martinez, former center -back Man City finally achieved his aspiration on the last day of the transfer.
The Spanish player agreed with personal terms and a 3 -year contract with Bilbao a long time ago and according to Fabrizio Romano, he refused at least 5 clubs to complete his dream return.
However, Laporte was trapped after a mistake caused by Al Nassr. The Marca newspaper said that while Bilbao had done the right process, Al Nassr did not apply on time, so the Basque team had no way to register Laporte.
Joseder Jose Felix Diaz said that the La Liga Club did everything to “troubleshoot the situation”, but the El Partidazo de Cope said that after reviewing the incident, FIFA informed Bilbao that Laporte could not be registered because the international transfer certificate did not reach time and the online TMS system (Transfer Matching System) online used for all transferred transfers closed.
FIFA has not yet made an official comment but may have a script, Laporte, who still hopes to play for Spain at the next World Cup, cannot play until January.
Laporte's transfer was published on La Liga's website and social network channels before being modified due to the difficulties in registering, compared to the David de Gea's defeat to Real Madrid in 2015.
After reaching the semi -finals of the Europa League under Ernesto Valverde, Bilbao ended in the fourth place in La Liga to win the right to attend the Champions League 2025/26 and will face teams like Arsenal, Dortmund, Newcastle and the current PSG champion.
In the first time, Laporte played 220 matches for Bilbao after growing up from the Academy – before signing a contract with Man City for £ 57 million in 2018.