Aston Villa set for transfer battle with Spurs for Serie A midfielder: report
Aston Villa are among the clubs ‘tracking’ Parma midfielder Mandela Keita, according to reports in Italy.
Villa are working hard behind the scenes to craft a summer transfer window that delivers far better results than last year, when the capture of Evann Guessand was the major outlay only for the Ivorian forward to be discarded at the first opportunity.
Several links are emerging from Italy with Villa’s name attached, including 23-year-old Belgian midfield man Keita, who has been a regular starter for the Serie A side this season.
Villa in for Keita
Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Villa are interested in the one-cap Belgium international along with Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion. Villa’s next Europa League opponents are in the mix too.
“Bologna is considering a replacement for Remo Freuler, whose contract is expiring and hasn’t [been] renewed,” according to Tutto Bologna Web. “The Rossoblu need a well-organised midfielder with good reading skills and the club’s official name is Parma’s [Mandela] Keita.”
The Leuven-born midfielder played for his home-town club in Belgium before signing for Antwerp, with whom he’d had two spells on loan, in 2024. Primarily a defensively minded midfielder, Keita was almost immediately signed by Parma and is understood to be in demand again.
He’s already played in 59 games in Serie A for the Gialloblu, starting 52 times.
The future of Villa’s midfield
Some degree of change is required in the middle of the Villa team, not least in the light of the injuries that have decimated the midfield in 2025-26.
Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans, John McGinn, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley have all spent time on the sidelines this season. Both Barkley and McGinn – who has been played in a more advanced position this season anyway – are over 30.
Kamara, Tielemans and Onana should form the core for the medium-term future but the amount of football Villa will hope to demand of them next season is evidently beyond them.
Lamare Bogarde and George Hemmings both have something to offer in central positions but Unai Emery’s move to bring Douglas Luiz in on loan shows that the club’s decision-makers are aware that there’s a gap between Villa’s first choices and back-ups in midfield.
Luiz is on loan but could be the player most affected by Villa’s reported interest in Keita.
There’s every chance Villa go after a midfielder in the summer transfer window but only a small chance they push to sign two, unless there’s an unexpected and unwelcome departure and subsequent addition to the shopping list.
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