When Aymeric Laporte (Agen, France; 31 years old) finally managed to return to the Spanish team last October after almost a year of absence, he arrived with something linking him to the Euro Cup won with La Roja in the summer of 2024 in Germany, one of the happiest moments of his career. He showed up at Football City Las Rozas on Wednesday evening wearing the glasses with yellow lenses that Álvaro Morata gave to the whole team and some federation employees in the final phase of the tournament. Although, due to the time and following Marcos Llorente’s explanations, perhaps he should have worn the ones with red crystals, which the captain also gave him.
That nocturnal arrival at the residence, where he was welcomed by the embrace of Luis de la Fuente, was the end of a very long and convoluted journey in which his career seemed to have run aground in Saudi Arabia. Until he managed to escape from Riyadh to Athletic Bilbao, and from there to rejoin an unstoppable team that this Tuesday at the Cartuja in Seville (8.45pm, La1) can equal against Turkey the historical record of 31 consecutive official matches without losing for Italy. Furthermore, unless they are defeated by at least seven goals, it will be the night in which Spain’s qualification for next summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be certified.
The match, which depending on how you look at it, may seem like little, given the very unlikely nature of a 0-7, is a lot for De la Fuente: “We face this match with exceptional responsibility for many reasons,” he explained on Monday in La Cartuja, where they were unable to train due to heavy rain in recent days. They did it at Sánchez Pizjuán. “For prestige. To enhance what we have achieved: we are first in the world and we want to continue to be so, and to continue to be so with authority.”
In this sense, according to federation sources, the rescue of Laporte, one of the most authoritative voices in the dressing room, is fundamental. An analytical and demanding type, non-conformist even on placid days, always attentive to the risks of comfort. Also one of the rocks on which the Luis de la Fuente system is based. “On a few occasions I even said after the European Championships that he was the best player in his position,” the coach recalled on Monday. “For our idea, for our style, he offers us a great output of the ball, he is capable of filtering passes and he also has a great hierarchy in the defensive phase. He marks the line a lot, he has a lot of importance in communicating with the rest of the teammates. Ayme is one of the central defenders who develops this concept perfectly for us. Technically he is exceptional. It is a luxury to have a player with these characteristics.”
Since returning in the previous window due to Huijsen’s absence, he has started two games and in both of them he was the player in the match with the most completed passes, according to Opta: 127 against Bulgaria in October, ahead of Pedri’s 101 and Saturday’s 101 against Georgia, ahead of Cubarsí’s 95. Before his gap of months, in his last match for Spain, in November 2024 against Denmark in the Nations, he was also first with 63. And then he disappeared.
He missed his next call-up to Al Nassr due to injury, for the Nations quarter-final against the Netherlands, the days of Dean Huijsen’s explosion, again at Bournemouth. He also missed the title matches in June, although he accompanied the team in street clothes in the final they lost on penalties to Portugal.
De la Fuente has always considered him one of his own, his first central defender if he is fit, which is precisely why he was unable to count on him in the September window, when the World Cup qualifiers began. Laporte had long been exploring an exit from Saudi Arabia, where he arrived in August 2023 and where he soon felt uncomfortable. This summer Al Nassr accepted 10 million from Athletic for his transfer, but when everything was agreed, he delayed the delivery of some documentation and FIFA paralyzed the operation. On September 3, Laporte found himself in limbo. He had already moved to Bilbao, but found himself immersed in a dispute which was concluded on the 11th in his favor by the FIFA Disputes Chamber.
When he arrived at Athletic he hadn’t played a top-level match since April and had been training alone in Bilbao for a few days while waiting for a solution. He was first tested for 26 minutes against Valencia on 20 September and started under the guidance of Ernesto Valverde. It had not yet been fully perfected, but De la Fuente made use of it in October when he had to recall Huijsen for overloading. He didn’t give him a number in the first duel of that window, against Georgia in Elche, but started him three days later in Valladolid with the number 10 against Bulgaria. He had recovered and last Saturday he started again against Georgia in Tbilisi, this time with his usual 14. Tonight, although almost everything has already been done, it is normal that Laporte is once again the rock on which the system stands. “There will be no revolution,” De la Fuente announced on Monday regarding the possible eleven against Turkey.
