Aston Villa sign Adama Traore from Barcelona

Villa announced the signing in a statement on Friday and the transfer fee could rise from an initial €10m (£7.1m) to €12m(£8.6m) if certain clauses are met.

Traore, who had been on Barce’s books since the age of eight, made four appearances for the Spanish side.

In addition, Barcelona have the right to re-purchase Adama during the first three years of his contract and will have first refusal should Villa decide at any time to sell him.

The 19-year-old winger has been the subject of interest from number of Premier League clubs, with reports claiming last week that Liverpool are in pole position to acquire the services of Traore.

“At Barcelona, I grew up both as a person and as a football player, so I will always be grateful to the club”, he told AVTV.

Aston Villa began their Premier League campaign with a good start, beating newly-promoted Bournemouth 1-0 ahead of their game against Manchester United this Friday.

Sherwood will be a happy man after finally getting the forward he has admired for a long time.

“He is a big powerful boy, very quick, dynamic, maverick-type player, you never know what’s going to come out next“.

Tim Sherwood The Villa boss also revealed that he travelled to Barcelona to convince the Spain Under-19 global to join his “new era” at the Midlands club.

Traore takes Villa’s new signings into double figures, joining Jordan Amavi, Jordan Ayew, Mark Bunn, Jose Angel Crespo, Rudy Gestede, Idrissa Gueye, Micah Richards, Scott Sinclair and Jordan Veretout.

Manchester United are unbeaten in their last 19 league matches at Villa Park since a 3-1 defeat on the opening day of the 1995-96 season. “He can hurt the opposition and I’m delighted to bring him here”.

Then Barcelona B got relegated in the season that Barcelona bought Luis Suarez to create the best attacking trio in the history of the game; suddenly, Adama’s path to the first team was not only blocked, but it had completely eroded.