Moussa Diaby completes Al-Ittihad move – Aston Villa income from player sales set to hit €120m

€60m fee agreed 

Aston Villa winger Moussa Diaby has completed a move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad for a fee of around €60 million – making the French star the Premier League club’s second most valuable departure ever. The forward will fall well short of the €117.5m Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021, but just ahead of Douglas Luiz’s €51.5m move to Juventus this summer. Just 12 months after joining the club for what was a club record transfer fee at the time of €55m, Diaby is set to depart the Villa Park side having made 54 appearances in all competitions for Unai Emery’s team and bagging 10 goals and nine assists. 

Despite being considered a consistent performer for Villa last season, Diaby departs the club as a necessary sale to compensate for the club’s high spending in the summer transfer window. To date, the English side have made 13 signings that have cost no less than €176m in transfer fees. That currently makes Villa the biggest spenders across all of Europe’s top leagues, outspending the likes of Manchester United (€104.5m spent on transfer fees), Olympique Lyon (€134.3m) and even Bayern Munich (€145.4m). And considering the fact that Villa have only earned €67.4m in fees for players sold this summer, it certainly made a lot of sense for the club to seriously consider and then accept the substantial offer from Al-Ittihad.

Played across the front line during his time in Birmingham, Diaby’s departure could be seen as a considerable loss for Emery’s side. However, Villa have done well to bring in other attacking options that should compensate for the Frenchman’s sale. In this transfer window alone the club have signed Lewis Dobbin, Samuel Iling-Junior and former Villa youth academy player Jaden Philogene, who are all predominantly left wingers. Not to mention the return of Ross Barkley, who can play as a No.10 through the middle of the pitch. When coupled with the impressive form of Leon Bailey and the return of Emiliano Buendía from a long-term injury as options on the right wing, it’s clear to see why Emery shouldn’t go wanting for options in attack, despite Diaby’s departure from the club. 

After completing his move to Al-Ittihad, Diaby will undoubtedly be heralded as the first major signing from a Saudi club in this summer’s transfer window. After spending a remarkable €950.4m on new players in last summer’s transfer window, the Saudi Pro League then rather surprisingly spent just €27.1m in the proceeding winter transfer window. The arrival of the Aston Villa star would undoubtedly make headlines, but it would also only raise the league’s spending this summer to around €121m, putting the Middle Eastern competition just sixth among all top divisions for money spent on new signings. Whether Diaby is a sign of things to come before the window draws to a conclusion or ends up standing out as a notable outlier remains to be seen.