Aston Villa are expected to be busy in the next two-and-a-half months in preparation for their return to Europe’s premier club competition.
The Villans finished fourth in the Premier League table to qualify for the Champions League, so they must bolster their ranks to cope with the additional workload.
Villa will be mindful of how Newcastle United reached the Champions League last season but struggled to compete on four fronts and ultimately finished seventh in the table.
Now, a report has emerged claiming that the Villans are surprisingly looking to bring in a new goalkeeper, with a bid said to be on the cards.
According to Mais Futbol, Villa are ‘working to formalise’ a proposal for Famalicao goalkeeper Luiz Junior in the coming days.
The Villans reportedly intend to make an offer of €10million (around £8.4million) plus €2million (around £1.6million) in bonuses for the 23-year-old.
Who is Aston Villa target Luiz Junior?
Luiz Junior hails from Picos in Brazil and began his football journey at Mirassol in his home country.
In 2019, he made the journey across the Atlantic to join Portuguese side Famalicao, initially linking up with their academy.
Junior rose through the ranks to become an established first-teamer and has made 139 appearances for the Primeira Liga club to date.
He has kept an impressive 41 clean sheets for Famalicao and helped his team finish eighth in the table last season.
They conceded just 41 goals in the league last term, the lowest tally outside of the league’s top six.
“Simply superb against Porto and Benfica recently,” Football Talent Scout’s Jacek Kulig wrote on X in May.
“Huge season for the 23-year-old Famalicao goalkeeper.”
Admittedly, Villa are already pretty well stocked in the goalkeeping department.
They currently have Emiliano Martinez, Joe Gauci, Robin Olsen, Filip Marschall and Viljami Sinisalo in their ranks.
Maybe the Villans are planning to offload one or more of those goalkeepers. In that case, it makes sense to hear that they’re looking for replacements.