Athletic misses out on Laporte as paperwork didn't arrive on time

For the time being, Aymeric Laporte will not be playing for Athletic Club. On Tuesday, the newspaper 'Marca' reported that the agreement was complete and the deal had been finalized, but it could not be registered administratively before the LaLiga transfer window closed at midnight.

According to the aforementioned media outlet, Al-Nassr did not send the documentation on time, so the clubs found themselves blocked by TMS, the computer platform integrated by FIFA for more than a decade for clubs to formalize their transfers.

As happened to Real Madrid with David de Gea, Athletic now finds itself without a luxury reinforcement for the Champions League, for which it had everything ready. Aymeric Laporte was going to sign a contract for the next three seasons after spending the entire summer trying to return to Bilbao. The deal with Al-Nassr was very complex and ended up dragging on until the very last moment.

Depending on FIFA and RFEF's green light

Now, FIFA and the Royal Spanish Football Federation are studying the documents and will confirm to Athletic in the coming days whether or not the transfer will be authorized. The 'Rojiblancos' have been working all day Tuesday and part of Monday to resolve the situation, but now it is in the hands of the authorities.

If the final answer is “no,” the Basque side will have to wait until January to resume negotiations with Al-Nassr. Laporte has a contract with the Saudi club until June 30th, 2026, so by then he will only have six months left on his contract. We will see if the deal goes through on the same terms or if they have to start over.