Laporte is an interesting case. Born in France to French parents, he qualified as Basque through his great grandparents. This allowed Spanish club Atheltic Bilbao, who have self-imposed rules about only using Basque players, to invest in the young Frenchman.

Aymeric Laporte is a brilliant centre back with a fantastic left foot, so there is no wonder that Pep Guardiola courted him. Laporte joined Manchester City in January 2018, and has since established himself as a regular starter in one of the world’s best teams.

Laporte has represented France through every youth level, been captain of each youth team, and says that he would prefer to play for France. But because Laporte lived in Spain for 8 years, he coulld start the process of gaining a Spanish citizenship and make himself available for La Roja instead. He has taken part in one French national team squad, but did not play.

Rumour has it that Laporte is left out in the cold for France because he doesn’t get along well with core players in the French squad: Laporte is too cocky and arrogant, and he’s also a bit of a loner. Reports from France claim that Laporte in particular doesn’t get along with Antoine Griezmann, one of the players that the team and their tactics are built around.

France has an unbelievable generation of young centre backs coming through the ranks at the moment. Besides Laporte, France have recently called up the following centre backs:

Benjamin Pavard (22, Stuttgart)

Lucas Hernández (22, Atlético Madrid)

Presnel Kimpembe (23, Paris Saint-Germain)

Raphaël Varane (25, Real Madrid)

Kurt Zouma (24, Chelsea - on loan to Everton)

Samuel Umtiti (25, Barcelona)

That’s six extremely talented centre backs, all playing for elite clubs, and that’s just counting those 25 or younger. In addition, there are several very exciting centre backs playing for France's under-21 side:

Dayut Upamecano (20, RB Leipzig)

Abdou Diallo (22, Borussia Dortmund)

Malang Sarr (19, Nice)

Staggering. From a cynical perspective, Spain might be a better choice for Aymeric Laporte. They've had two poor World Cups in a row. Their defence doesn’t have anywhere near the quality France has. Sergio Ramos is turning 33 in March, and Gerard Piqué has recently retired from international duty. Sounds like there should be plenty of room for a young centre back born in France.