Manchester City accept offer from Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr for Arsenal target: Reports
Cristiano Ronaldo seems set to play alongside Aymeric Laporte next season as Al-Nassr have reportedly reached an agreement to sign the Arsenal target from Manchester City.
Laporte started to struggle for minutes under Pep Guardiola, playing under 1,000 minutes of Premier League football last term. The Cityzens apparently deemed him expendable and have accepted an offer to sell him to Al-Nassr.
According to David Ornstein of the Athletic, Laporte is thought to be open to the possibility of playing for the current Arab Club Champions Cup winners. Nathan Ake, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji and newly-signed Josko Gvardiol are Guardiola's other options in the centre-back position.
It became evident that Laporte would struggle for playing time when he was used as a late substitute in Manchester City's 3-0 league win over Burnley on 11 August. He still has two years left on his contract at the Etihad.
Since his €65 million move from Athletic Bilbao in 2018, Laporte featured in 121 games across competitions for the Cityzens, winning 14 trophies. He was recently linked with a move to Arsenal, as per Football.London.
But the 29-year-old is now set to become Al-Nassr's first headline signing in the centre-back area. The Saudi giants have added Sadio Mane, Seko Fofana, Marcelo Brozovic, and Alex Telles since signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in December.
Al-Nassr off to a poor start in Saudi Pro League without Cristiano Ronaldo
Al-Nassr were beaten 2-1 by Al-Ettifaq in their Saudi Pro League opener on Monday (14 August).
They played the game without a number of star players — most notably Cristiano Ronaldo, who injured his knee in the Arab Club Champions Cup (ACCC) final on 12 August. The game against the Commandos came too early for Alex Telles, Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic, who were all rested.
Sadio Mane started up front and opened the scoring in the fourth minute. But Al-Ettifaq came back to win 2-1, with goals from Robin Quaison and Moussa Dembele within the first eight minutes of the second half proving to be the difference.
It remains to be seen if Ronaldo, who scored the only goal in the ACCC win against Al-Hilal, will be fit in time for Al-Nassr's next game. They face Al-Taawoun at the KSU Football Field on 18 August.