Aston Villa have revealed that they have agreed to sign Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans on a free transfer.
Throughout the last year of his contract at the King Power Stadium, Tielemans has been heavily linked with a number of European football's established clubs.
Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool have been among the teams who have been credited with an interest in the Belgium international, with it being an open secret that he would become a free agent at the end of June.
However, it is Villa who have won the race for the 26-year-old's signature, with the West Midlands outfit confirming that a deal was in place on Saturday night.
The transfer is a huge coup for Villa, just two weeks after they secured a spot in next season's Europa Conference League courtesy of a remarkable revival under Unai Emery.
© Reuters
Villa stated that a deal will formally go through on July 1 and he becomes the first arrival in what is expected to be a busy summer for the club.
Although Tielemans made 27 starts and four substitute outings in what was ultimately a relegation campaign from the Premier League, he will go down as a Leicester legend.
Tielemans scored the only goal of the game from 25 yards out as Leicester won the 2021 FA Cup final with a 1-0 victory over Chelsea, with the Foxes winning the trophy for the first time in their history.
In total, Tielemans scored 28 goals and 26 assists from 195 appearances in all competitions since initially joining on loan from Monaco in January 2019.
Before Villa announced that they had signed Tielemans, Leicester had already publicly acknowledged that one of their star players would be leaving the club.
Darren Plant
