Aston Villa sign Moussa Diaby for club-record fee: Key stats
Premier League club Aston Villa have signed Bayer Leverkusen winger Moussa Diaby for a club-record fee. As per The Guardian, the 24-year-old has joined Villa for £51.9m. Diaby was a priority signing for manager Unai Emery as the club completed its third major signing following the arrivals of midfielder Youri Tielemans from Leicester and defender Pau Torres from Villarreal. We decode Diaby's stats.
Why does this story matter?
Villa are making the right noises since Emery joined the club last season. Under Emery, they changed their fortunes and earned a place in the Europa Conference League. Notably, Diaby was being monitored by big European clubs and had interest from Saudi Arabia. However, Emery's presence and Villa's ambitions pulled him to England and the Premier League. Diaby was a massive player at Leverkusen.
49 goals and 45 assists for Leverkusen
In 2018-19, Diaby played for Paris Saint-Germain, making 34 appearances in all competitions. He scored four goals and made seven assists. He joined Leverkusen in 2019 and spent four seasons in Germany. As per Opta, across 172 matches in all competitions, Diaby scored 49 goals, besides making 45 assists. His best season was in 2021-22 when he scored 17 goals and provided 14 assists.
His numbers in the Bundesliga
In 2019-20, Diaby made 28 appearances, scoring five goals and making five assists. In 2020-21, the Frenchman managed four goals and 10 assists from 32 league games. In 2021-22, Diaby had 25 goal involvements, scoring 13 and providing 12 assists from 32 games. In 2022-23, he managed nine goals and eight assists from 33 matches. Overall, he clocked 125 appearances (G31 A35).
Breaking down his Bundesliga 2022-23 season in numbers
As mentioned above, Diaby scored nine goals and made eight assists from 33 games in the Bundesliga 2022-23 season. As per Opta, the winger clocked 61 attempts (excluding blocks), managing 35 shots on target. He created 58 chances and hit the woodwork thrice. He completed 691 out of 872 passes (pass accuracy of 79.24%). He also made 14 tackles and completed 51 take-ons.
Diaby has won three career trophies to date
Diaby has so far made 10 appearances for France. He won the 2020-21 Nations League trophy. At club level, he has two trophies with PSG, winning the Ligue 1 and Trophee des Champions in 2018-19.
