Amadou Onana helped Aston Villa secure an emphatic win over Bournemouthplaceholder image
Amadou Onana helped Aston Villa secure an emphatic win over Bournemouth | Getty Images
Amadou Onana helped Aston Villa to resounding 4-0 victory over Bournemouth last time out
That’s according to his agent and sister Melissa Onana, who admitted that the former Everton midfielder had already given his word to Unai Emery before Manchester United attempted to hijack the deal at the eleventh hour.
She explained in an interview with Belgian journalist Sacha Tavolieri, via Walfoot: “Aston Villa’s sporting project was crystal clear. It was a project where Amadou could continue to develop. We spoke with the sporting director, and the salary was also attractive, let’s not kid ourselves.”
Aston Villa had just secured qualification for the Champions League heading into that season while United, who finished eighth under Erik ten Hag, only scraped into the Europa League at the last moment by beating Manchester City in the 2024 FA Cup final. However, despite this United were in a position to offer Onana a much better salary if he had joined them instead.
“The Euros were coming up, Amadou was performing well, and we finalised the deal. Then, Manchester United entered the picture. But I had already given my word to Aston Villa. We knew very well that Manchester would be able to offer better financial terms, but we had already given our word to Aston Villa, and the project was a good fit. The style of football played, the club’s ambition: Amadou felt right at home there.”
Amadou Onana’s high potential was evident before Aston Villa move
Onana is midway through the sixth season of his career as a professional footballer and he has spent half of that time in the Premier League. He started out at Hamburger SV in the second-tier of German football but was evidently a class above many in that division, aged 19, before making the move to Lille.
At the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, he enjoyed a dream debut season, reaching the round-of-16 of the Champions League while winning the Trophée des Champions - the French equivalent of the Community Shield. His performances earned him a £33m move to Everton where he quickly became a firm fan favourite, making 72 appearances in two seasons as the club evaded the threat of relegation.
Amadou Onana is starting to live up to very big price tag
Onana helped the team finish sixth, reach a Champions League quarter-final and an FA Cup semi-final but wasn’t always a regular in a season disrupted slightly by various hamstring issues. He sustained another one of those between matchday three and matchday six this season, but has really been a catalyst for the team’s upturn in fortunes in recent weeks - winning four of the five league matches that he’s played in since returning.
Onana found the net last time out against Bournemouth in a superb 4-0 victory against one of the season’s standout teams so far.
“Everyone’s delighted, it was our biggest victory of the season,” said Onana after the game, via the club website.
“Four goals, four different goal scorers – it doesn’t get any better than that. With the ball, we’ve been very proud of how we played out from the back. Sometimes I know it can be annoying for the fans but it’s the way we play and it’s what got us to here. We need to continue doing that. I think that we beat them at their own game. They’re a very intense team, but today in the duels we were really aggressive. We were spot on.”
Onana will hope to add to his 24 caps for Belgium during this international break before returning to action with Villa against Leeds United in a challenging away test against a newly-promoted side.
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