Aston Villa 'plotting' January move for 21-year-old admired by Chelsea

Aston Villa are ‘plotting’ a move for RB Leipzig defender Castello Lukeba, according to a report by Football Insider. Fellow Premier League side Chelsea have also been credited with an interest along with European champions Real Madrid.

The France international, who has one cap under his belt so far in his career, joined his current club last year. He has since made 48 appearances in all competitions, seven of which have come this season.

Aston Villa could see Lukeba as someone to bolster their defensive department. At the age of 21, he would be a useful long-term addition for the Midlands outfit.

He has four years left on his contract at Leipzig so Unai Emery’s side would need to fork out a transfer fee to land him. They have the chance to bring in more players in the January transfer window.

Lukeba started out at Saint-Genis Laval before Lyon snapped him up. He rose up through the academy ranks of the Ligue 1 giants and was a regular for them at various different youth levels.

The centre-back penned his first professional deal back in 2021 and went on to play 68 games for the first-team, chipping in with four goals from the back. His breakthrough saw him emerge on the radar of Leizpig and then landed him in August last year.

Aston Villa linked

Aston Villa are now being linked and time will tell whether they are able to get him. They are an attractive team to play for these days and have been transformed over recent years by Emery.

Their recruitment has been spot on in the last few windows and Lukeba seems to fit the profile of player who they like to go for. He is young, has potential and has already played a decent amount of games.

Villa are back in action next Saturday with an away trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham. They are sat in 5th place in the table after their impressive start to the new campaign and drew 0-0 at home to Manchester United last time out.

Speaking after their last clash, Emery said: “I’m very happy with the month we did. Today, in the first half we didn’t control the match like we were preparing before. In the second half we changed some positions on the field and the reaction of the players was better than the first half.

“We controlled better, avoided their transition and avoided some of their attacks getting into our box. They had one good chance in the second half when they hit the crossbar, but I think overall we were better in the second half. In the last moments of the game we were close to scoring a goal with the chances we had with Morgan and Jaden Philogene. I can say that the draw is fair for both teams.

“It’s Manchester United and we are in the top five in the table. We are happy there but we have to be very demanding and continue building our team to be successful in our objective in the league.”