Barcelona and Real Madrid have both been credited with interest in Aymeric Laporte this summer, but Athletic Bilbao's message hasn't wavered: their World Cup-winning centre-back is going nowhere cheaply. ONE reports that the Basque club has told the two Spanish giants they will need roughly €80 million to prise him away.
It is a striking number given that Laporte only returned to Bilbao a year ago. The 32-year-old, a product of the club's academy, came back from Al-Nassr in 2025 on a deal running through June 2028, having left for Manchester City back in 2018.
His timing was vindicated in style. Laporte was a fixture in Spain's run to the 2026 World Cup title, forming a defensive partnership with Barcelona's own Pau Cubarsí that helped La Roja concede almost nothing across the tournament.
That form is exactly why Barcelona came calling. Sporting director Deco watched several of Spain's matches in the United States during the World Cup and was reportedly struck by what he saw, with the club said to be planning direct talks with Laporte's representatives about a move.
Early reporting suggested Barcelona might get him relatively cheaply, with some outlets floating a release clause as low as €12-15 million. Athletic Club moved quickly to shut that down, insisting the real release figure sits at roughly €80 million — a number designed, in effect, to end the conversation.
Real Madrid have also been linked, but the noise around that interest has since cooled. Reports in Spain suggest Los Blancos weighed a move before deciding against it, put off by both Laporte's age and the scale of Bilbao's asking price.
For Athletic, the stance reflects how much the club values a player who chose to come home rather than stay in Saudi Arabia, and who has since become one of the most reliable centre-backs in La Liga and a World Cup winner to boot. Officially, he remains not for sale.
With most of Europe's major leagues still to resume for 2026-27, stories like this one will keep circulating through August — but for now, any deal for Laporte would require one of Spanish football's two superpowers to meet a price Bilbao clearly doesn't expect them to pay.
