Aston Villa 'alerted' to £20m-rated Rangers star but could face serious competition from Leeds United
Aston Villa are keen to add a Belgium international to their ranks
Highly-rated Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin has emerged as one of Aston Villa’s top summer transfer targets, according to recent reports.
Raskin has been on the books of Rangers since January 2023 when he joined from Belgian club Standard Liege. He arrived to great fanfare after being signed up by former boss Michael Beale and has since lived up to the hype with a series of outstanding performances despite his side’s struggles on the pitch. The 24-year-old has racked up a total of 92 appearances at the heart of Rangers midfield while contributing four goals and 11 assists from a deep-lying defensive role.
He’s been part of a Light Blues team that has struggled to lay a glove on Celtic in this year’s Premiership title race and has also endured the low of an early Scottish Cup exit to lower league Queen’s Park as well as an agonising penalty shoot-out loss in the final of the League Cup against the Hoops at Hampden. Despite his team’s poor displays on the pitch, Raskin has proven himself as a class above many of his teammates and in March 2025 was even introduced into the senior national team at Belgium.
Aston Villa and Leeds United fight to sign Nico Raskin
TEAMtalk claims that European hopefuls Aston Villa and newly-promoted Leeds United have both emerged as strong contenders to sign Nico Raskin. Aston Villa are looking for further squad depth to help aid their push for success on all fronts this year and could look to sign Raskin after his impressive displays in the Europa League against sides like Manchester United, Tottenham, Nice and Fenerbache this term.
Meanwhile, Leeds after winning promotion at the second attempt are desperate to sign a tough-tackling midfielder that can help consolidate the West Yorkshire side in the top-flight and make them hard to break down defensively.
An estimated price tag of around £20m is being mooted by the Daily Record - which is 10 times the amount Michael Beale paid to sign him just two and a half seasons ago.
Rangers remain determined to retain Nico Raskin
Rangers have experienced a challenging campaign in the Scottish Premiership but brighter times could be around the corner as the San Francisco 49ers Group, who also own Leeds United, are closing in on a takeover of the club which is expected to be completed before the start of the summer.
The American businessmen will undoubtedly have plans to take the club back to the summit of Scottish football and are believed to see Raskin as central to that plan.
Former Villa defender Alan Hutton, who also starred for Rangers, says the decision they make regarding Raskin will be key to them making a strong first impression. He told the the Scottish Football Social Club former Light Blues defender Alan Hutton said the response from the 49ers to interest in Raskin could be very telling: “If somebody’s going to test the water [for Raskin], it’ll be interesting to see what they do because you’ll kind of get to know where their minds are at and what they’re planning for the future. Because you need these guys. Why would you try and build something and sell them on. I don’t think you have to do that at this moment in time.”