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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018 Sport 20 SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL Manchester City complete Laporte signing for club-record fee MANCHESTER City have signed French central de- fender Aymeric Laporte from Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, the Premier League leaders said yesterday. British newspapers reported that City paid a club-record 57 million pounds for the 23-year-old Laporte who has signed a contract until 2023. The club's previous record fee was 55 million pounds paid to Wolfsburg for mid- fielder Kevin de Bruyne in 2015. "I am very happy to be here," Laporte said in a club state- ment. "City are a club with a lot of ambition and they are one of the best teams in Eu- rope. "I am looking forward to working under Pep Guardiola and trying to help the Club to achieve success. "It means a lot that the Club have shown faith in me and I am excited to get started." City coach Guardiola wanted to add another centre back to his squad to challenge Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones with ongoing injury concerns surrounding captain Vincent Kompany. Laporte, a left-footed de- fender, was a first-team regu- lar at Bilbao since breaking through in the 2012-13 season and he helped them win the 2015 Spanish Super Cup. He clocked up a total of 222 ap- pearances for the Basque club, scoring 10 goals. On the international stage, Laporte has featured 19 times for France at Under-21 level. Laporte becomes City's sixth signing of the season follow- ing the arrival of Ederson, Da- nilo, Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva at the start of the campaign. Speaking at a news confer- ence ahead of today's league clash against West Brom- wich Albion, Guardiola said Laporte has all the attrib- utes required to adapt to the demands of the English game."We are very aware of his skills. He's an experienced central defender on the big stages and has the skills to help us," Guardiola said. "He will be able to start right away. The Premier League is special in many senses. But he is intelligent. "It's always tough for a new player but we will be patient with him. He is the perfect age to be with us for a while." Turkish soccer club completes first Bitcoin transfer in country's history A Turkish soccer club has completed the country's first ever transfer using the Bit- coin cryptocurrency, broad- caster CNN Turk reported yesterday. Harunustaspor, a local amateur league club, signed 22-year old Omer Faruk Ki- roglu for 2,000 liras (£377.6) worth of Bitcoin and 2,500 li- ras in cash, for a sum total of 4,500 liras, CNN Turk said. Club chairman Haldun Se- hit declared that the move was the first of its kind by a sports club in Turkey and worldwide. "We did it to make a name for ourselves in the country and the world... We are proud of this," he was quoted as saying. Digital currency Bitcoin has been on a highly volatile track in the last few months. After hitting an all-time high just shy of $20,000 on Dec. 17 on the Bitstamp plat- form, it plunged more than 50 percent over the ensuing month to below $10,000, but has since stabilised to just shy of $11,000. Turkey's gov- ernment has warned against the use of the cryptocur- rency, saying it carries risks as no legal foundations were available for such transac- tions. Authorities around the world, particularly in Asia, have attempted to rein in the global boom in trading bit- coin and other cryptocurren- cies - a form of digital money created and maintained by its users. European Union states and legislators agreed last month on stricter rules to prevent money laundering and ter- rorism financing on ex- change platforms for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. "This is a first for me and for the world," Kiroglu said, according to CNN Turk. "As my chairman said, we are doing something new. I am open to new things." Aymeric Laporte