Manchester City and Manchester United are reportedly among a number of top European clubs monitoring Aston Villa youngster Carney Chukwuemeka.
The 17-year-old is yet to make his senior debut but did make the bench for Wednesday night’s 2-1 home loss to City, giving rise to talk that Villa boss Dean Smith could give him minutes as the season nears its end.
According to the Guardian, City and United are joined by Monaco, PSV and RB Leipzig in holding an interest in Chukwuemeka.
Villa chief executive Christian Purslow described Chukwuemeka as “probably the best 16-year-old in England when he signed his first professional contract last year, with his technical ability for such a player of his size – he’s 6ft tall – particularly standing out.
Born in Austria to Nigerian parents, the midfielder has featured twice for England at U18 level. He is the youngest member of Villa’s U23 side, for whom he’s turned out 16 times this season.
He had been set to face Liverpool in January’s 4-1 FA Cup third round at Villa Park, when Villa were forced to field a team of youngsters due to a Covid outbreak, but he missed out due to having to quarantine after training with the first team.
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