This past summer, Aston Villa were contemplating the sale of young striker Jhon Duran, because they weren’t sure how much playing time he would get with Ollie Watkins starting every week.
Watkins, who scored a key goal for England at the Euros this summer, was one of the best all-around strikers in Europe last season, scoring 19 goals with 13 assists as a legitimate Premier League Player of the Season candidate with Aston Villa qualifying for the Champions League.
So Duran was on the transfer market, and West Ham were very close to signing him. Aston Villa were holding out for 40 million pounds, and it seemed like Duran was keen to join West Ham, where he’d have a much easier path to playing time.
But Aston Villa ended up buckling down so hard that it eventually seemed like they weren’t really interested in selling Duran at any price, valuing him higher than any of the Premier League clubs with interest in him. (Chelsea were also linked.)
Duran stayed, and it turns out, not only were Aston Villa right to value him at 40 million pounds and rebuff offers from West Ham and the others, but they may have undervalued Duran at that price point anyway.
Through four appearances off the bench and just 104 Premier League minutes, Duran already has a hat-trick worth of goals, and he saved his finest mark for this weekend’s 3-2 comeback win against Everton.
Aston Villa were down 2-0, but then, of course, Watkins himself equalized with a brace. Then in the 76th minute, Duran fired the winner, scoring one of the goals of the season in mid-September with an absolute thunderbolt from God knows how far out.
Check out a clip of the goal for yourself here.
Jhon Duran is only 20 years old, and he has the potential to be special. Aston Villa could very well have two 20-goals strikers in their squad. Be warned, Champions League foes.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.