Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Aymeric Laporte may give up on France career if Spain call him up

Athletic Bilbao's young French centre-back Aymeric Laporte has suggested that he might switch allegiance to Spain if he is not soon called up by Les Bleus.

Laporte, 20, is already a regular starter for Athletic, and impressed especially last season as the Basque side sealed Champions League qualification. He has also starred while winning the European Under-19 Championship with France in both 2011 and 2012, and played in this week's unsuccessful European Under-21 Championship playoffs against Sweden.

However the Agen-born youngster has not yet been called up for senior duty with coach Didier Deschamps having a wealth of other young options including Real Madrid's Raphael Varane, Liverpool's Mamadou Sakho and Manchester City's Eliaquim Mangala all ahead of him in the queue.

The defender told L'Equipe -- in quotes picked up by AS -- that Spain coach Vicente del Bosque had already been in touch about making the switch, and he could not rule out accepting these advances in future.

"A while ago, [clubmate Ander] Iturraspe came to see me to ask me if Del Bosque could come and talk to me," Laporte said. "Before the World Cup, I had also had some contacts. At the moment my objective is to be called up by France, but if in the end they do not count on me, this could be analysed."

Having now lived more than five years in the Basque country since joining Athletic's youth system, Laporte would qualify for Spain via residency regulations.

Del Bosque has admitted recently that Spain are light on options in central defence with Laporte's teammate Mikel San Jose, Real Madrid reserve Nacho Fernandez, Borussia Moenchengladbach's Alvaro Dominguez and Real Sociedad's Inigo Martinez among those who have been trialled without success in the position through recent seasons.

Barcelona's Marc Bartra, who is fourth choice at club level, was called up for the recent Euro 2016 qualifiers, and played 90 minutes of Spain's 4-0 win in Luxembourg.

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