Aston Villa have reached an agreement in principle to sign Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint Germain for €55 million. The deal is still being finalised, with paperwork in progress, but Villa have moved ahead of Liverpool for one of the most expensive teenage deals in recent memory. Mbaye made his senior debut for PSG in August 2024 at just 16 years old.
Mbaye's senior record
The size of the fee makes more sense when you look at what Mbaye has already done. He has made 42 first-team appearances for PSG, scoring four goals and adding four assists. For Senegal, he has earned 15 caps since his debut in November 2025, and he has already played 175 minutes at the 2026 World Cup.
His tournament output is modest on paper, with one goal in four World Cup appearances, but the workload has not been token. Mbaye has logged 24, 36 and 57 minutes in his three latest World Cup outings, and his ratings in those games were 7.3, 7.2 and 6.7. That is the kind of usage Villa are paying for, a teenager who has already been trusted in competitive senior matches by both club and country.
Why Villa pushed so high
Villa do not spend €55 million on a 16-year-old unless they believe the ceiling is real. Unai Emery's side have already beaten significant competition for his signature, and the fact that Liverpool were in the picture will only increase expectations around the move.
Villa finished fourth in the Premier League in 2025, which explains why they are shopping for top-end attacking talent rather than waiting for value deals to emerge. Mbaye fits that approach. He is young, already experienced and has produced against senior opposition in a way that makes the investment easier to understand.
The remaining hurdle is the paperwork. Once that is done, Villa will have one of the most ambitious teenage signings of the summer on their hands, and PSG will have lost a player who had already logged 42 first-team appearances before his 17th birthday.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
