Bayer Leverkusen winger Moussa Diaby ‘set to undergo a medical at Aston Villa after club-record £50m transfer is agreed’… with player having rejected chance to join Al-Nassr
Bayer Leverkusen winger Moussa Diaby will reportedly undergo a medical at Aston Villa after the Premier League club agreed a club-record fee with the German outfit.
The fee, expected to be worth up to £50m including add-ons, was matched by Al-Nassr but France international Diaby has chosen Villa.
The deal would make Diaby Villa’s most expensive ever signing, well above the £0m paid to Norwich for Emi Buendia two years ago.
talkSPORT claim the move will be finalised once Diaby completes his medical examination.
It will also be good news for PSG, who are set to receive around £6m of the fee having agreed a sell-on clause when they sold him to Leverkusen.
Diaby was keen for his future to be resolved before Leverkusen departed for their pre-season training camp in Austria.
Mail Sport revealed earlier this month that Diaby was Villa’s priority target in their hunt for a new wide attacking player.
Villa boss Unai Emery knows the player well from his time in charge of Paris St Germain. Emery managed the Ligue 1 giants from 2016-2018, when Diaby was progressing through the ranks.
His versatility across the front line is one of the main qualities that appealed to Emery.
He joined Leverkusen in 2019 and contributed 14 goals and 11 assists in all competitions last season, catching the attention from a number of top European clubs, including the likes of Arsenal.
Diaby was under contract for two more years and Leverkusen wanted to keep him but the Premier League is where he wanted to be.
His goal has always been to play Champions League football but with Emery backed by billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, Villa believe they can get there in the coming seasons, and time is on the side of Diaby, who turned 24 earlier in July.
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With Moussa Diaby’s (24) imminent transfer to Aston Villa, the Frenchman will become Bayer
Leverkusen’s second most expensive departure after Kai Havertz to Chelsea in 2020.
As reported by Kicker, Aston Villa will pay Bayer Leverkusen a €55m figure that can rise to €60m based on performances. It’s a significant return on the €15m that B04 paid to PSG in 2019 to sign Diaby, who leaves the club after four years and 172 games across all competitions, resulting in 49 goals and 48 assists. Bayer Leverkusen won’t receive the full sum though – as reported via our colleagues at Get French Football News, PSG can expect to receive around €7m after they secured a sell-on clause upon his departure from the French club.
It’s a significant coup for Aston Villa, who beat Al-Nassr to the signing of Diaby after the Saudi Arabia club launched another bid to sign the French winger in the eleventh hour. And it’s also not the first time that Villa have looked to Leverkusen to strengthen the wide areas, with the signing of Leon Bailey in 2021 for €32m.
With the departure of Diaby and Mitchel Bakker, it gives Bayer Leverkusen a significant figure to strengthen their squad, despite needing a transfer surplus of between €10m-€20m this summer. With Patrik Schick’s latest setback, Die Werkself have identified Union Saint-Gilloise forward Victor Boniface, who scored 17 and created 12 in 51 games last season for the Belgian club, as a potential replacement for the Czech striker.
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