French Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte, naturalized Spanish on Tuesday, is eligible to wear the Spain jersey with "immediate effect", a FIFA spokesperson told AFP on Friday.
The 26-year-old is now registered with the Spanish Federation and no longer French after the green light granted by the single judge of the Player's Status Commission, it was specified.
This means that Laporte "is eligible to play in the representative selections of the RFEF - the Spanish Football Federation - with immediate effect", according to this source.
However, it was not that simple at the start.
As revealed on our site this Wednesday, the statutes of Fifa, modified in September 2020, stipulate, in fact, that a transfer of nationality can only be granted if the player "was under 21 years of age during his last appearance for its current member association (
Editor's note: in this case France
) in an official competition of any football division ”.
Luis Enrique pushed for his coming
However, the central defender of Manchester City, born in Agen on May 27, 1994, notably participated in an Iceland-France, on May 5, 2015, counting for the qualifiers for Euro Espoirs 2017. He was then 21 years and 3 months old. . But it is also specified in article 9 paragraph 73 of the regulations governing eligibility to play in a representative team, that taking into account the principle of legal certainty, the requirement relating to age ("he had not yet 21 years ”) does not apply to players who played their last official competitive match for their current association before September 18, 2020, the date of entry into force of the September 2020 amendments.
Trained at Athletic Bilbao from 2010 to 2018 before his departure for England, Laporte was called up by Didier Deschamps three times for the France team between 2016 and 2020, but never played a minute in the blue jersey. .
According to specialist media, the initiative for Laporte came from Spain coach Luis Enrique himself.
The technician would have instructed the leaders of the RFEF to approach the player, so that he can participate in the Euro (June 11 - July 11) with Spain.
Luis Enrique must make public his list of 26 players summoned for the Euro on May 21, but reserves the right to delay the deadline by a few days, according to the press.
The lists must be sent to UEFA before 1 June.
