Terrible blow for the Athletic Club and for Aymeric Laporte. While the latter dreamed of returning to the side of Bilbao and a club where he started in professional and evolved there between 2012 and 2018 at this level (222 matches played, 10 goals scored), the central defender will not return immediately to the Basque Country. Indeed, his transfer could not be validated in time with documents sent late.
This is in any case what the Basque club explained in a press release: “The Athletic Club wishes to inform its members and all its supporters that FIFA has rejected the request of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to obtain an International Transfer Certificate (CTI) from the Saudi Football Federation in order to transfer the player Aymeric Laporte. The facts are as follows: 1. On September 1, and during the registration period of the players authorized by law, the player Aymeric Laporte Fèvre, the Saudi club Al-Nassr Football Club and the Athletic Club accepted the transfer of the player to the Athletic Club, subject to compliance with certain conditions. 2. The Athletic Club submitted the transfer request to the FIFA TMS platform on September 1, although the transfer request could not be fully finalized on this date for reasons independent of its will and due to external factors independent of its will. 3. On September 2, the RFEF asked FIFA to authorize an exception of validation in order to obtain the international transfer certificate from the Saudi Football Federation, so that the player can be recorded by the Athletic Club. 4. On September 3, the RFEF informed the Athletic Club by email that FIFA rejected the request and the possibility of obtaining the international transfer certificate.»»
