Aston Villa have reached an agreement with Paris Saint-Germain over the signing of Ibrahim Mbaye in a deal worth €55m.
The 18-year-old has come through the youth ranks with the Ligue 1 giants, and has gone on to make 42 appearances at senior level, scoring four goals and providing four assists. Further, he has bagged four goals in 15 caps for Senegal.
After our reported pursuit of Rafael Leao ended in disappointment as he looks set to join Galatasaray, Villa have wasted no time in pivoting to our next target as it’s suggested that an agreement has been reached for Mbaye.
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According to The Athletic, Villa have reached an agreement in principle with PSG for Mbaye in a deal worth €55m, and we are now said to be in the process of finalising a deal for a player we have been linked with for quite some time.
It’s been a summer of major change at the club as Unai Emery rebuilds his squad, and having lost Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins in attack, we’ve filled those voids and brought in real talent and potential to try and build on the success that we enjoyed with our former stars.
While Mbaye still has much to prove at the top level given his inexperience, there’s no doubt that he is an exciting talent with a bright future ahead if he can continue to improve and develop, and who better than Emery to oversee that process as he looks to turn this young, hungry new Villa into contenders in the coming years.
The Senegalese international predominately operates as a right-sided winger and so we’ll see how he fares with the competition for places alongside John McGinn and Alysson, although he can play on the opposite flank too and so it simply adds another dynamic, threat and dimension to our attacking options with pace, movement and creative quality being added across the frontline by our new additions this summer.
It will be fascinating to see how this new Villa evolves with Mbaye and Nicolas Jackson seemingly set to join Zion Suzuki, Matteo Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Joao Gomes, Leon Goretzka, Alejandro Garnacho and Johan Manzambi in shaping this new-look Villa squad, and Mbaye is now another exciting reinforcement who we will hope can fulfil his potential in a Villa shirt and emerge as a decisive figure in our attack.
