Aston Villa's Ambitious Signings: Suzuki and Ruggeri
Aston Villa have doubled down on their European ambition with the capture of two big-money signings – and one of them is already being talked about as a decade-long cornerstone of the club.
The Midlands side have confirmed the arrivals of Japan goalkeeper Zion Suzuki from Parma and Italian left-back Matteo Ruggeri from Atletico Madrid, in deals worth a combined £47m.
Suzuki, 23, joins for around £30m from the Serie A club, while Ruggeri, 24, arrives for £17m to fill the gap left by Lucas Digne’s move to Paris St-Germain earlier this month.
A new No 1 in waiting
On paper, Suzuki’s timing looks curious. Emi Martinez is still at Villa Park after his move to Juventus collapsed over the weekend when the two clubs failed to agree a fee. The World Cup winner, who also backstopped Villa to Europa League glory in May, suddenly finds his future clouded by uncertainty.
Villa, though, are clear about the direction of travel. They see Suzuki as their long-term No 1, a goalkeeper they believe can dominate the position for the next 10 years.
His rise has been rapid. After leaving Urawa Red Diamonds and moving to Europe via Sint-Truiden in Belgium, Suzuki joined Parma for £8m and quickly became a mainstay, making 59 appearances in two seasons and helping them to a 13th-place finish in Serie A last term. In Italy, he forced his way into the conversation as one of the division’s standout keepers.
Those who worked closest with him think Villa have secured something rare.
Dennis Rudel, his former coach at Sint-Truiden, still laughs at one particular memory. After a match at Anderlecht, tempers flared outside the stadium.
“We played in Anderlecht and after the game we went out to the bus and there was a fight with hooligans,” Rudel told BBC Sport. “The head coach called for Zion: ‘Come here, get out of the bus and clear the situation.’
“It was a joke but you have a picture of Asterix and Obelix and everything is flying away. You have never seen a goalkeeper or a player like that.”
The Asterix comparison is not thrown around lightly. For Rudel, it captures the sheer physical presence of a keeper he insists is unlike anyone he has seen.
“I saw his power immediately. To show your strength in the game you have to let the tiger out on the pitch, let the beast out. He is so powerful, I have never seen a goalkeeper like it,” said the former Union Berlin coach, who oversaw Suzuki’s loan spell in Belgium in 2023-24.
“He has such big hands and is powerful – when he can reach the ball it will be 90-95% a save, maybe other keepers touch the ball but it goes in. With him it is something really special.
“After the first two weeks of working with him I said to him you don’t need your apartment, you live in the gym.”
Rudel raves not just about Suzuki’s frame and explosiveness but his all-round modern profile. He highlights the Japanese international’s distribution with both arms and feet and believes the raw tools are there to climb to the very top of the game.
“It’s possible because if he stays healthy and with his physical strength there is no one better in the world, in terms of dynamic, jumping power, throws, kicking the ball,” he said.
“When I watched him at the World Cup, his biggest strength is he is mentally clear – the focus on the game or the training sessions is so good. He is always prepared, really disciplined.
“When I see how he always adapts so quickly over the last four years, I’m convinced he can play at that [Premier League] level.”
That level brings its own shadows. At Villa, every save and every mistake from Suzuki will be weighed against Martinez, one of the club’s modern icons.
“There are big footsteps from Martinez [to follow], you get measured and compared to Martinez,” Rudel admitted. “It would be the same at Bayern Munich with the new Manuel Neuer – Jonas Urbig who is starting to replace him – you get compared to the former player.
“He’s aiming to show he can be one of the best. He was immediately one of the top four or five goalkeepers in Serie A.
“As a person and a player, he is a role model and how you should behave. I don’t see any weakness in him.”
Rudel played a central role in steering Suzuki to Europe. After travelling to Japan in 2020 for coaching clinics, he connected with the goalkeeper’s coach at Urawa and quickly flagged Suzuki’s potential. Sint-Truiden’s Japanese ownership via DMM.com, and the club’s track record with players such as Wataru Endo, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Daichi Kamada, smoothed the path.
“[In 2023] we were looking for a new goalkeeper and had a couple on the list but all of a sudden the club said we had an option to get Zion. I said to the sporting director ‘forget the list – if we can get him, get him’,” Rudel recalled.
“His level went up really quickly, he is very ambitious, he wanted to learn a lot, he asked a lot. We did a lot of video analysis and I can remember how nice it was to work with him. It was a shame it was only one season.”
Ruggeri steps into Digne’s void
While Suzuki’s arrival grabs the spotlight, Ruggeri quietly answers another pressing question in Unai Emery’s squad.
Digne’s switch to European champions PSG on 9 August left Villa short on the left side of defence. Ruggeri, who has yet to be capped by Italy at senior level, arrives with pedigree and medals.
He was part of the Atalanta side that lifted the Europa League in 2024, making more than 100 appearances for the Bergamo club before sealing a move to Atletico Madrid last summer. Now he is back out of Spain after a single season, tasked with bringing energy, balance and delivery down Villa’s left flank.
Both new signings could be thrown straight into the Premier League fire, with Villa opening their campaign away at Brighton on Sunday.
A new keeper tipped to be a force for the next decade. A European trophy-winning full-back replacing an established international. Martinez’s future unresolved in the background.
Villa are not easing into this season. They are tearing straight into it.
