Manchester City has paid the £57.1 million buy-out clause for Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte, the Spanish club has confirmed.
And Laporte has issued a farewell message to Bilbao supporters as the Frenchman prepares to fly to Manchester to complete the formalities of his move to the Premier League leaders.
The deal will be a club record for City, eclipsing the £55 million fee they paid Wolfsburg for Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne in 2015, and take Pep Guardiola’s spending in just 19 months at the club to £450 million, more than half of which has been on defenders.
City sent a delegation to the La Liga offices in Madrid on Monday to trigger the €65 million clause.
In a statement, Bilbao said: “On January 29, 2018, La Liga has certified that the player Aymeric Laporte has fulfilled the requirements for the valid unilateral resolution of the work contract that linked him to Athletic Club.
“The aforementioned certification states that the player has expressed his desire to terminate and unilaterally resolve the contractual relationship that joined him from the 2009-2010 season and that the amount of the compensation established in the contract has been deposited.”
Laporte, 23, issued his own statement thanking the club for their support since he arrived in 2012. He said: “So much to say in a few lines … I want to thank you for everything you have given me. I arrived as a teenager and here I have trained as a person and as a football player.
“My exit, for a new challenge in my professional career, won’t be a goodbye but a see you soon. Here I leave a unique club, different, and that I will never forget. For all this, thank you!”
Guardiola had prioritised the recruitment of a centre-half this month in the wake of Vincent Kompany’s continuing fitness battles and doubts over Eliaquim Mangala.
City had wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton but the Holland defender joined Liverpool for £75 million and also enquired about West Bromwich Albion’s Jonny Evans, for whom they had a £21 million bid rejected last August. But City eventually opted to revive a move for Laporte, who had originally pulled out of a deal to join City for £39.6 million in 2016.
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