Barcelona seems to find itself once again up against a wall in San Mamés. After the failed Nico Williams saga in the summers of 2024 and 2025, a new name from Athletic Bilbao has emerged strongly within the corridors of the Catalan club.

Journalist Victor Navarro revealed on Spanish radio station Cadena COPE that international center-back Aymeric Laporte has been offered to Barcelona in recent hours as an available opportunity to bolster the backline.

Laporte, who turns 32 on May 27, is seen as the ideal partner for Pau Cubarsi, a duo that led the Spanish national team's defense to the World Cup final. The left-footed defender represents a textbook solution to Barcelona's crisis of lacking a left-sided center-back since Iñigo Martínez's departure.

Despite the technical appeal of the idea, the operation looks extremely complicated on a negotiation level. The Basque defender has only been back at Athletic Bilbao for ten months, having returned from Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia for €10 million.

Laporte is tied to a long-term contract until 2028, commands a high salary, and is a key pillar in the club's new project under German coach Edin Terzić, who will succeed Ernesto Valverde.

These developments come amid high tension in relations between the Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao boards, following the collapse of Nico Williams negotiations on two consecutive occasions, making the Basque club's management unwilling to offer any concessions or facilities to the Blaugrana.

This interest is not new; Laporte's name has been linked to Barcelona on numerous occasions. In the winter of the 2017-18 season, Athletic refused to negotiate with Barcelona over him, which led him to move to Manchester City. The defender himself explored the possibility of wearing the Blaugrana shirt in the seasons before his move to Saudi Arabia in summer 2023, but financial and administrative circumstances prevented the move from materializing.

Between the technical need for a left-footed defender with Laporte's profile, and the complexity of negotiating with an opponent unwilling to cooperate, the question arises: Will Barcelona repeat the Nico Williams scenario and burn its papers once again in a deal that seems impossible from San Mamés?