Aymeric Laporte is poised to become the latest high-profile signing in the Saudi Pro League but fans are stunned over his transfer fee.
An endless amount of big names have completed big-money moves to the Middle East so far this summer and the Manchester City defender looks set to become the next arrival, following former teammate Riyad Mahrez.
According to Jack Gaughan of the Daily Mail, the Spain international will fly to the country on Monday to finalise a switch to Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr.Nassr, who recently won the Club Arab Champions Cup, have been incredibly busy in the market and snapped up the likes of Sadio Mane, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana and Alex Telles.
Last season's SPL runners up are also on the verge of securing the services of Otavio from Porto in a €60 million deal.
But Laporte, who won five Premier League titles with City, is going for a mere £23.5 million.
The 29-year-old played 180 times for City after joining from Athletic Bilbao for £57 million in 2018 and had attracted interest from European clubs.
But his fee feels like an absolute steal and the general consensus from supporters is that Al Nassr have got themselves a serious bargain.One wrote: "A Champions League calibre club has missed out on an absolute bargain there.
very single other top club in Europe has dropped the ball on this one.
A second agreed: "An elite and vastly experienced Pep-coached centre-half available for less than £35m all summer."A third simply added: "Joke fee."
A fourth was in disbelief, commenting: "He’s a 50m centre back MINIMUM."
A fifth opined: "That fee is ridiculously bad. Al Nassr paid €60million for Otávio."
A final user summed up, saying: "He would be a starter in the other 19 PL teams. Still going for 23m."
Laporte was once a key cog in Pep Guardiola's backline but found himself behind the likes of John Stones, Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake last season.The £77 million capture of Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig pushed him further down the pecking order and he will now sign a three-year deal with Al Nassr as a result.
He is set to earn around £15 million-per-year in Saudi. His new employers have had a poor start to the new campaign, losing their opening two fixtures.
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