He's a Basque, man.
;)
That's like calling Pep a Spaniard.
He is not a basque. He doesn't feel himself like that. He becomes from a french family. He does not speak a single word in basque.
Basque and catalan culture in french sides are very reduced. Maybe 2 or 3% of people are and feel the own culture.
Athletic or Real Sociedad are very nationalists clubes.
Athletic resist without buying foreigners. Real Sociedad broke that 32 or 33 years ago, and took A LOT of work for them to make that decision.
In fact, first foreign player they bought was Aldridge, an irish guy, in a political decision. It was like "well, he is not basque, but he is irish, 'a way of being basque' ".
IRA and ETA (terrorist independist basque group) in those years were brothers. There is a great connection between irish, catalan and basque people.
This is Belfast:
Guys like Laporte are guys who just tolerate basque culture, whom they knew in almost adulthood, through football in Athletic Bilbao.
