Aston Villa have reportedly reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund over the signing of Donyell Malen in a deal worth in excess of €23m.
The 25-year-old enjoyed an impressive spell at PSV Eindhoven before joining Dortmund in July 2021, and he has since gone on to score 39 goals and provide 20 assists in 132 appearances for the Bundesliga giants.
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Further, he has nine goals in 41 caps for the Netherlands as he has established himself as a key figure at the top level for both club and country, and despite facing more of a struggle this season to establish himself in the Dortmund line-up, he has evidently caught the eye of Villa as we look to strengthen Unai Emery’s squad.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa have now agreed a deal to sign the Dutch international in a move worth €23m plus €3m in add-ons, and a medical is expected to be carried out soon with Malen set to complete the formalities of a move to Villa in the coming days.
It’s an intriguing addition to the group as although we have multiple options already available to play behind our frontman, we certainly lost something with the sale of Moussa Diaby last summer and struggled to replace him, with Jaden Philogene expected to move on this month after returning to try and fill that void.
Malen has experience and a track record of producing at a high level, while our scouting team, in conjunction with Monchi and Emery, will have assessed all options available to us meticulously in this transfer window, before deciding that the Dortmund ace would be the best fit for us moving forward and could have the biggest influence in Emery’s system and style of play.
With his technical ability, speed, creativity and goal threat, Malen will hopefully add an important new dynamic to our attacking play, and ultimately complement the likes of Morgan Rogers, Leon Bailey, Jacob Ramsey and others, with the view that they can either play alongside each other, or we continue to add competition and depth to try and compete on multiple fronts.
As noted above, Philogene has been tipped to join Ipswich this month, and so if that’s ultimately the swap that we’re overseeing in a like-for-like replacement in the squad, that is a significant upgrade that should hopefully give us a crucial boost moving forward.