Jhon Durán joins Al-Nassr – second most expensive signing ever by a Saudi Arabian club

Now official 

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Aston Villa striker Jhon Durán has completed a sensational move to Saudi Arabia before the end of the January transfer window. The Colombian goal scorer is off toe Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr. According to multiple reports, Al-Nassr pay an initial fee of €77 million, plus add-ons. When concluded, it will make Durán’s sale the biggest transfer not only of the current transfer window, but the biggest across the entire season, surpassing Omar Marmoush’s €75m move to Manchester City earlier in the month. 

When asked about the prospect of losing one of his key forwards, Villa manager Unai Emery put on a brave face and suggested that it could be a benefit to the Premier League side. “I don’t know if Duran is leaving but if he is, it is good news for us because he is leaving because it is good money,” noted the Spaniard after his team’s 4-2 win over Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday night. “It is for the club, the players and the team. I don’t know if he will leave or not.” Indeed, the proposed fee would make Durán the second biggest sale in Villa’s history, overtaking Moussa Diaby’s €60m move to Al-Ittihad last year but some way behind Jack Grealish’s €117.5m move to Man City in 2021. 

Durán made the move to Villa in January 2023 when he signed from Chicago Fire for a fee of €20.2m (that deal has now grown to €29.5m) as something of an unknown quantity in European football, having made just 28 senior appearances for the MLS club and bagging eight goals and six assists along the way. However, the young striker needed very little time to adapt to the physical and technical demands of the Premier League and in his first full season with the club he picked up eight goals across 37 appearances. However, since most of those appearances were late substitutions, it worked out at a decent rate of 137 minutes per goal scored for the club. Having already courted interest from Chelsea after his first full season in England, the Colombian striker then started this season in even better form, bagging 12 goals in 29 appearances for Emery’s side. This then led to reported interest from Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Arsenal and even West Ham, but it now seems as though Saudi side Al Nassr have managed to beat all of their competitors to the player’s signature. 

With a transfer fee starting at €77m, Durán makes the move to the Saudi Pro League as the league’s second most expensive signing ever. As previously noted, his departure from Villa surpassed Diaby’s €60m move last summer, as well as the €60m fees paid for Malcolm and Otávio in 2023. The move will also be a record signing for Durán’s new club, Al Nassr, who will now be able to lay claim to two of the top 10 transfers made by Saudi clubs. However, they still lag someway behind Al-Hilal, who still have five of the top 10 and Al-Ittihad, who can lay claim to two. The striker’s move to Saudi Arabia will also take the league’s spending on new players this season to €577m, which would see the division overtake LaLiga and become the fifth-highest spending league in world football.