Updated Aston Villa have now officially signed Amadou Onana from Everton in a deal that could be worth in excess of £55m.
The Belgian international agreed personal terms with the Midlanders on a long-term contract last week and completed the move to Villa Park over the weekend, the ground where he made his debut for the Blues in August 2022.
The transfer is reportedly worth £50m, with Everton negotiating an additional £5m in performance-related add-ons and a percentage of any sell-on fee..
Onana was signed from Lille two years ago in a deal that would have topped £33m had all appearance clauses been met. The Ligue 1 club are due 20% of the profit made on the sale but it still represents a profit of around £26m on Onana’s amortised book value.
David Ornstein reported for the The Athletic that Onana, who was supposedly targeted by the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle and Bayern Munich, was keen on joining Unai Emery’s project at Villa which will involve Champions League football this coming season following their fourth-place finish last term.
He makes the switch from Goodison Park to fill the void left by Douglas Luiz who was recently sold to Juventus and will link up with former Toffee, Ross Barkley who recently joined Villa in a £5m deal from Luton.
Onana’s transfer should also allow Everton to keep hold of star defender Jarrad Branthwaite this summer unless they receive an astronomical bid for the young defender who has been the subject of two derisory offers from Manchester United.
The news came on the heels of a suggestion by journalist Sacha Tavolieri that Onana had turned down the offer of a three-year contract from Saudi League side Al-Ahli, indicating his preference to remain in the Premier League.