Villa beat Newcastle to club-record signing of £59.5m midfielder Manzambi

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Aston Villa have clinched a club-record £59.5m (€70m) move for Johan Manzambi, having seen off interest from Newcastle United to sign the Switzerland breakout star.

Freiburg midfielder Manzambi shone for Switzerland at the World Cup, scoring three goals and assisting two as they reached the quarter-finals, losing 3-1 to Argentina.

Those five goal involvements are enough to rank the 20-year-old joint-eighth among all players at the 2026 tournament and the second-most by a Switzerland player at a single edition, after Josef Hugi scored six times in 1954.

He also played a starring role as Freiburg reached the final of the Europa League last season, eventually losing 3-0 to Villa in the showpiece match.

Manzambi was named Young Player of the Tournament after scoring two goals and supplying two assists during Freiburg’s European run, with Nottingham Forest’s Igor Jesus (35) the only player to have more shots (33) than the youngster in that competition.

Villa have not confirmed the length of Manzambi’s contract or the fee they have paid, but it reportedly eclipses the £50m (€58.8m) they paid Everton for Amadou Onana in 2024.

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 17, 2026

He is Villa’s second signing of this transfer window, after centre-back Modou Keba Cisse arrived from LASK.

In terms of outgoings, Youri Tielemans has joined Manchester United, while Lucas Digne and Emiliano Martinez are also expected to depart and Arsenal are eyeing up a move for Morgan Rogers. 

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