Exclusive: Aston Villa aiming to rival Chelsea & Real Madrid for ambitious £60m transfer | OneFootball

Aston Villa are planning to strengthen their defence with an ambitious potential transfer move for RB Leipzig defender Castello Lukeba, who is also on the radar of elite clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid.

Sources with a close understanding of the situation have informed CaughtOffside that Villa manager Unai Emery strongly appreciates Lukeba’s talents and considers the 21-year-old as an ideal candidate for a transfer in the upcoming January transfer window.

CaughtOffside understands that Villa hope an early offer could fend off interest from other interested clubs including Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid, while Newcastle are also understood to be among his potential suitors.

It won’t be easy for Villa to see off competition from these big names, but they’ve done some great work in the transfer market in recent times, and their ambition has paid off as Emery was able to guide them to Champions League qualification with a hugely impressive and surprising fourth place finish in the Premier League last season.

Castello Lukeba in action for RB Leipzig (Photo by Luciano Lima/Getty Images)

Castello Lukeba transfer won’t come cheap for Aston Villa

One issue with Lukeba, however, is that Leipzig are fully aware of the kind of talent they have on their hands and they value the France international at around £60million, which could prove to be too expensive for Villa.

Chelsea will no doubt hope this can put them in a stronger position, especially as they look in need of a new signing at centre-back to give them an upgrade on the likes of Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi, while Wesley Fofana has proven rather injury prone.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, are understood to be prioritising a centre-back signing for next summer, with Arsenal’s William Saliba and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero among the players they like, though Lukeba would probably be a more realistic target.

It will be interesting to see if Villa can move early and persuade Lukeba to choose them instead, or if the Frenchman will bide his time and see what other options he has at the end of the season.