With speculation building in the last few days of our interest in signing Italian international Nicolo Zaniolo, late on Friday evening Aston Villa officially announced his capture from Turkish side Galatasaray.
Nicolò Zaniolo. Villan. 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/4WsWw1EJH1
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 18, 2023
The 24 year old, 13 capped versatile attacker, comes into Villa Park initially on a loan deal for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign, and it is believed that we have a buy clause already in place – his deal is subject to successfully gaining a visa but I wouldn’t imagine there will be any problems there.
Whilst he has had some well covered injury problems, he also comes in with good experience and success having helped Italian Serie A side Roma to their Europa Conference League win in his over 120 games for them, and he helped Galatasaray to their Super Lig win last season.
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly he settles in, but understandably Unai Emery was a big pull for him. Speaking to the Official Site, he explained.
“I’m very happy to be here. When Monchi called me, I couldn’t wait to be here and to play my first minutes in this shirt for this amazing club. Aston Villa is one of the best teams in England and in the Premier League. I want to play and show my quality. Unai Emery is one of the greatest coaches in the world. And for me, this is a big occasion to show my quality. For the team, it’s a chance to do big things.”
He has been handed the No 22 shirt for the season, and if he can recapture his pre injury form, we really have a player on our hands here when he gets used to the PL.
