Athletic Club finds Aymeric Laporte's replacement

Iñigo Martínez will become a red and white footballer in the next few hours in exchange for 32 million euros. This will be the club's most expensive signing in history and he will nearly double his salary compared to what he was earning at Real Sociedad.

MANCHESTER CITY ACTIVATES LAPORTE'S CLAUSE

Laporte activated his 65 million euro release clause on Monday at the offices of the Professional Football League before traveling to Manchester to complete his signing with City on Tuesday. Additionally, Athletic will receive an additional five million euros for training rights.

According to Goal, the Ibaigane offices were already aware of Iñigo's situation hours after the French defender confirmed to the Board of Directors that he was leaving for Pep Guardiola's new project, becoming the second most expensive defender in history.

If nothing changes, in the next few hours Athletic will activate the 32 million euro clause for the central defender from Ondarroa at the LFP headquarters, making him one of the highest-paid players in the club, on par with Kepa Arrizabalaga.

The only downside for the Ibaigane entity until the end of the season is that the Basque player will not be able to play in the UEFA Europa League, as he has already played three matches in the continental competition with Real Sociedad (Vardar, Rosenborg, and Zenit).

In the summer, Iñigo Martínez was very close to joining Ernesto Valverde's new project at Barcelona. The Basque had his bags packed to travel to Camp Nou, but a last-minute decision by Barcelona's technical secretariat made him stay in San Sebastián.

As a result, Iñigo will become the most expensive Spanish defender in the history of football, surpassing even Sergio Ramos, for whom Real Madrid paid the 27 million euro release clause stated in his contract with Sevilla.