After making headlines for the wrong reasons in the summer, Jhon Duran is now letting his football do the talking after an excellent start to the season with Aston Villa.
The 20-year-old striker was the subject of interest from a number of clubs in the last transfer window, while Chelsea and West Ham both came close to signing him. It was no secret that Duran wanted to leave Villa in the summer and had even hoped to land a move to Stamford Bridge at the start of the year in the January window.
Villa stood firm on their high valuation of the Colombia international knowing what a talent they have on their hands. A rough diamond, you might say. After scoring eight goals in all competitions last season, Duran has started this campaign with two league goals in three appearances having scored Villa’s second goals in 2-1 away wins over West Ham and Leicester City.
The script was written for Duran to come on at the London Stadium and win the game for Villa after he made the Irons gesture on an Instagram live stream in the weeks leading up to the opening weekend of the season amid the Hammers’ interest in him.
Following the win over Leicester at the King Power Stadium, Villa skipper McGinn admitted he was “pleasantly surprised” about Duran’s focus and attitude in training after he returned to Bodymoor Heath at the start of August.
Signed from Chicago Fire in January 2023 in a deal worth £14.75m plus £3.3m in add-ons, Villa’s president of football operations Monchi and the club’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany believe Duran is one of the most promising strikers around.
“If there is a club which really thinks he can be one of the top strikers in the world, if there is one club and one manager, it is Aston Villa and Unai Emery,” Vidagany explained. “There are no fewer than 40 clubs who want Duran – everyone wants Duran.
“Jhon Duran is a boy of 20 who knows what we know, he has a huge potential. He can be one of the best strikers in the world, period.”
Monchi added: “The most important thing for Dami and me is to be aligned with Unai because he is the boss. I worked with him for four years at Sevilla and Dami at Valencia. We need to understand Unai. He is very confident with Jhon Duran. Very confident.
“He think in the next years he can become one of the best strikers in the world. He is 100 per cent convinced. But what is the problem? We have also Watkins and Duran wants to play. He thinks he is better than Watkins.
“That is normal because every player thinks he is better than their teammates. To manage Ollie Watkins and Duran is not easy but at the end it is the best for the team. If you have two big strikers it is better than only one.
“Did Duran want to leave the club? Yes. That is normal because he wants to play. But now we spoke with him yesterday [deadline day] and he is happy. He is training good.”
“He is finding Unai is giving him more minutes,” Vidagany continued. “The thing with Duran is that it is very difficult in football, all positions are important but the goalkeeper and the striker are the two most important. If you have a great goalkeeper the second goalkeeper can be as good as he can be but it is difficult to change.”
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